The Price of Safety
by Electron Beam
Summary: After an assassination attempt, Sora is taken into protective custody by a private security company. He is separated from Kairi while a promising young police lieutenant hunts for a killer manipulating events from the shadows... T for violence/lang.
1. Parade

Chapter 1: Parade

_July 6, 8:36 P.M._

"Eighth floor, sir. Enjoy your stay."

The attendant stepped out of the way of the elevator doors to reveal a hallway bathed in soft yellow light. The lush carpet had an incredibly intricate design; it seemed a sin to walk upon it. The wallpaper was designed to match the carpet, and every few doors there was a faux-wax candlestick on the wall with a gently flickering electric bulb. Men in tuxedoes escorted women in flowing gowns down the length of the hallway.

The man in the elevator strode into the hall, admiring his surroundings. He reached the far end of the hallway after a minute of slow walking. The hallway entered into a library stocked with thousands of books. The outside wall was glass, giving a panoramic view of the sun setting behind the mountains just outside the city. The man turned around. Maids in black-and-white garments moved from room to room with cleaning equipment as men in freshly pressed suits delivered bottles of the finest champagne in buckets of crystal-clear ice.

The Hotel Regal was aptly named.

The man stood there for just a moment, soaking in the luxurious atmosphere. He finally snapped back into motion when a couple stopped to stare at the far underdressed man who was simply standing in the middle of the hall. He walked to a door labeled 8067. The door handle accepted the key card and opened for the man who was obviously not used to this kind of luxury. _Maybe this is what the generals got used to,_ he thought.

As he entered, he froze in awe of his room. It was dominated by a king bed with a large heap of pillows tastefully arranged at the head. A flat-screen television hung on the wall opposite the bed. There was a desktop PC on a large, polished, stained oak desk. A large window looked out onto a busy downtown street. A plump easy chair sat next to a desk with an ornate lamp. A large closet held a large safe. In short, everything, including the room itself, was _big._ A room like this must cost nearly 100,000 Munny a night. Good thing this little trip was paid in full by his… employer. For the humble 'employee', that was a car payment, or maybe a premium payment for his outrageous health insurance. _That_, however, was mostly his own doing. He was perpetually showing up at the hospital with odd injuries.

He set his suitcase down by the desk and picked up the old-fashioned rotary dial phone. He had business to attend to.

The phone rang twice before a hurried-sounding voice picked up. "Yes?"

"I'm at the hotel. Everything is in order. You picked a nice place, sir."

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Harris. Now, are you sure you didn't arouse any suspicion? If anyone's on to you-"

Harris bristled. As if the incompetent security had any inkling of his intentions. "No sir, I'm still clean. You can relax. I'll call when the job is finished. Have you wired my payment?"

The other line hesitated for a moment. The sound of a keyboard clicking could be heard in the background. "Yes. One quarter of your final payment has been deposited into your account. Check for yourself."

Harris accessed his electronic bank account on the PC. Sure enough, four hundred million Munny was there. Still chump change compared to the normal clientele of this particular hotel, but it was still quite a bit of Munny. With that kind of cash he could buy a mansion on some tropical world and have pina coladas and girls for the rest of his life. And watermelon. The 2000 Munny a slice would be a pittance compared with his newfound riches.

"Thank you kindly, sir. Will there be anything else?"

The man on the other side of the line hesitated. "No. That's all. Thank you, Brian."

"My pleasure, sir."

_9:02 P.M._

Sora liked visiting other worlds, but not on official business. Even more than a year after his final grueling fight with Xemnas, his duties as Keybearer were not over. He could tolerate being sent to other worlds to beat back the occasional Heartless attack, but this was unbearable. It was a bureaucratic enterprise thought up by some politician with a personal agenda. His proposal would buy him votes and give him the image of someone who looks out for his constituents. He proposed an investigation into how the Heartless had detected and targeted individual worlds and why. Thus was born the Heartless World Detection Investigation. Half of its mission was a joke. Everyone with half a brain knew the Heartless were attracted to the heart of the world. But exactly how the Heartless detected the world's heart was still a mystery, and that was the only reason that the HWDI had legs. It was, for a government operation, small, efficient, and clean. But, like all government projects, it didn't have a clue of what to do next. Most specialists on the heart had given up trying to discover the exact method the Heartless used to detect the mother lode on each world. It seemed a futile endeavor, but it had earned the formerly obscure politician a seat in the Parliament of his world, and he was determined to keep his pet project going.

Sora sighed. As much as he loathed the official progress report meetings, it was as vital part of the Investigation. The Investigation kept most people happy, and that was enough for Sora.

He turned to his left as he heard his name echoing in the cavernous motor pool. Kairi was there, waving to him from behind a few oil drums. Sora ran to her with renewed happiness. They pulled each other close.

"I missed you," Kairi said, her voice muffled in Sora's jacket.

Sora kissed her lightly on top of her head. "I missed you, too."

As Sora pulled away, Kairi reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a small trinket.

"Tarzan made this for you. He and Jane send their regards."

Sora held the small wooden object. It was a miniature Keyblade, carved by stone and fastened to a crude metal ring. He had forgotten how long it had been since he had visited Tarzan and Jane at their treehouse.

Sora continued to look at the trinket "I'm guessing Jane was the one who told you to send 'their regards,'" he said, still admiring Tarzan's handiwork.

Kairi giggled. "How'd you guess?" she replied.

Sora simply smiled. Kairi clasped her hands behind her back and opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off by another voice from behind Sora.

"Well, look who's back!"

Sora turned around to see Riku walk out from behind a parked limousine. Kairi shouted "Riku!" as she ran over to him and hug him as well. "Good to see you too, Kairi," he said, "but we need to finish our parade preparations. The mayor of this city has organized a big parade in honor of the Keyblade Masters coming to town.

Kairi let go of him and frowned, disheartened. "Isn't that two days away?"

"Yeah, but the police department wants to be able to rope off the streets in advance, and they need to know our route. It needs to be finalized by noon tomorrow at the very latest."

Sora turned to a map of the city on a metal workbench. There were several lines marked on the streets. Some were scratched out with red pen, others had small notes written at one corner or another. One was outlined with yellow highlighter. "It looks like our route is pretty much mapped out, Riku. What else needs to be done?"

Riku and Kairi walked to the map as well. Riku pointed to a building near the center of the city. "The mayor wants us to run the parade by the Hotel Regal. It's supposed to be the most beautiful building on this world, and he wants the TV cameras to see us driving by it. I dunno, maybe it's some publicity matter." Riku indicated an intersection with a pen. "So we're going to have to reroute the parade down 37th Street, then turn left onto Sunset Boulevard here."

Sora scrutinized the proposed route. "It looks a bit longer, but that doesn't really matter. It's not like we have any great reason to get there any earlier."

Riku turned around and walked to a phone mounted on the wall. "Yeah, I don't really want to go either, but if we mess up the mayor's parade, he won't have any incentive to continue paying for our rooms. Plus, it's just common courtesy to be on time when we're staying on this guy's Munny."

Sora glowered by the map. "What do we do at these meetings, anyway? You know, besides listening to some egghead say 'We don't have a clue how they do it. Okay, that's it, see you next month!'?"

Kairi turned to Sora, her hands on her hips. "Sora! Those scientists try really hard to figure it out. Don't be so mean!"

Riku chuckled as he dialed the number for the mayor's office. "Seriously, Kairi, he's right. They're running out of ways to say 'We know nothing.' You'll see for yourself on Thursday. It's so boring tha- Yes, this is Riku, calling for the mayor." He turned his back to the two. "Ah, we have the final parade route mapped out and we need to know when and where to deliver it. Oh good. Have him come in the front entrance. We'll give it to him there. Thank you. Goodbye." Riku placed the handset back on the mount. "The mayor's office is sending a car to pick up our final plan. Sora, would you take the orange highlighter and trace our route?"

Sora ran the highlighter along the planned parade route on the map. He wrote a quick note to designate the orange line as the final route and rolled up the map. He wrapped it with a rubber band and handed it to Riku, who disappeared through a door to the lobby of the hotel. Kairi turned back to Sora and smiled seductively. She placed her hands on his hips and gently pushed him to the concrete wall.

"Now it's just the two of us." She brushed some stray hair out of his face. "Did I tell you how much I missed you?"

Sora wrapped his arms around her. "No, you gave me Tarzan's present instead." He flashed his smile again.

Kairi drew herself even closer to him. "Why don't I show you?" she whispered in his ear.

Their lips touched as she turned her head. They hadn't seen each other in nearly a month, and they could both feel each other's passion as they kissed for what seemed an eternity. Sora ran a gloved hand through her dark red hair as she nibbled on his ear. He had been afraid to make a move in the time since he had returned from his second quest for fear of destroying his friendship with Kairi. But in the months that followed, they had become increasingly more involved with each other. Sora gently bit her neck. He felt her shudder with pleasure as he gently worked his way back up to her lips.

She reached up and played with one of the spikes on his head, twirling and tugging it ever so gently. She had always done that, ever since their first kiss on the dock of their favorite island back home. He had bought her a polished crystal in the shape of a heart. It was just small enough to hide in his clenched hand. He had rowed her out to the island one Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day sitting on the beach with her, talking and laughing. As sunset approached, he got up and began to walk to the dock.

"Sora, wait. Are we going to leave already?" Kairi had asked, disappointed.

Sora turned around but didn't stop walking. "No, I just wanna show you something. Follow me!"

She got up and wiped the sand off her as she ran to catch up with the not-quite-seventeen-year-old. He sat down on the edge of the dock, his feet inches above the crests of the small waves. She walked to the edge and sat next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. "What is it you wanted to show me?" she had asked, staring into the distance.

Sora's hand opened, revealing his gift as he held it up to the sunset. The last rays of the day glistened in the many facets of the crystal. The edges were a rosy pink, while the center burned with a fiery orange. "It's a fire opal-mmmph" he had begun to explain as she cut him off mid-sentence, her arms around his neck, lips touching. Sora hadn't expected her to kiss him right then and there, and he almost dropped the crystal into the ocean in surprise. He slipped it into her pocket and enjoyed the fleeting moment.

The sound of a toolbox falling to the floor interrupted their reverie. Kairi turned in time to see several mechanics quickly return to their work. They blushed, realizing that they had been making out in full view of the entire motor pool staff. "We'll finish some other time," Sora whispered. "Somewhere a little more private."

Kairi turned to face him again. "Promise?" she asked, pouting.

Sora smiled as Riku walked back through the door. "Promise," Sora whispered, giving her one final kiss.

Riku walked over with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Good news. Not only do we get an open-air limo, but the mayor has agreed to bail us out of the meeting early to go on a tour of the mountains around eleven o'clock that day. Lunch is included." He leaned in closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. "I can get you two a private tour if you want it."

Kairi spoke up quickly. "Thanks a lot, Riku, but then you'd be all alone! We wouldn't leave you alone with those politicians, would we, Sora?"

Sora slowly raised an uncertain finger in defiance of her noble words. "Actually…"

She cut him off quickly. "We wouldn't."

Riku shrugged. "Okay, it's your call. Anyway, we should get to our rooms for some sleep. Tomorrow we make the final preparations for the parade. See you then!" he called, walking to his rental car. He turned the key and gunned his bright red convertible out into the evening, music blaring.

Kairi smiled and shook her head. "He's gonna get in an accident, the way he drives," she said incredulously. Sora leaned up to her and quietly asked, "Are you sure you don't want a private tour? We could finish up there."

Kairi looked over her shoulder. "And leave Riku alone with a bunch of stuck-up snobs? Sora, that's not very nice."

Sora slid up behind her, running his hands up and down her sides, whispering into her ear. "Riku's a big boy. He can handle himself on a tour. Then maybe I can handle you…" He smiled as she spun around, still in his grasp.

"Sora! You little womanizer, let me go." They both giggled as she hit him in the chest. "If you think that I'm just going to abandon Riku like that, you've got another thing coming, kid."

"He said he'd be alright."

"That doesn't mean he'd like it."

"Oh, he doesn't mind. He wouldn't have offered if it would have made him miserable."

Kairi crossed her arms over her chest. "Sora, we're going with Riku and that's final."

Sora reluctantly agreed. "Okay, we'll go together. I'll find someplace else for you."

She gave him a quick hug before leaving. "I'm sure you will."

_July 8, 8:15 A.M._

Brian Harris was going to miss this room. The bed, the chair, the incredible TV with the sports package included. He could watch every Blitzball game on twenty different worlds with it. Everything was simply _perfect._ Maybe he could get a replica made when he was paid that incredible fee in just a few minutes.

He looked out of the window. It wasn't quite centered along the road, but that was part of his cover. If the placement was _too_ perfect, he would be under suspicion very quickly.

Harris pulled out his suitcase from underneath the desk and hefted it up onto the bed. He unzipped the main compartment to reveal no clothes, no documents, no laptop; nothing that should normally be in a suitcase was there. Instead there was rigid foam. He reached inside to extract his tool.

There was a soft scraping noise as his instrument slid against the foam mold. He pulled out the second piece of the assembly and, with professional speed and precision, assembled his equipment. An optical array was placed on top and tightened. As he finished, he meticulously inspected every part of his matte-black, perfectly cleaned, precision manufactured rifle.

He removed a large silencer from the foam and threaded it onto the end of the barrel. His weapon complete, he began to load the weapon with the four bullets that were also embedded in the foam. A crowd had gathered on the streets below. He waited for the cheer that would signal that his mark had arrived.

_8:17 A.M._

`Sora and Riku may have been enjoying the attention they got in the limo, but Kairi was nervous. She hadn't been in front of so many people since her 6th grade class play. She had stuttered all of her lines and nearly wet herself in front of all her friends and their parents. Her stage fright had only mildly decreased over the years. She gave an obligatory smile and wave, and was glad that Sora and Riku were soaking up the crowd's attention. Their antics in the rear passenger seats, Riku on the left, Sora on the right, kept the crowd from noticing the small, timid girl in the front. They had competed to see who could conjure up the best lightning storm, whose Reflect spell lasted longer, and who could create more ice crystals to cool the crowd on that swelteringly hot July day. The crowd ate up their boyish competition with glee.

_Those two…_ she thought. _They can't even ride in the same car together without having a contest!_ She turned in time to see Sora's Reflect spell wear off a fraction of a second sooner than Riku's. Riku pumped his fist in the air as the crowd shouted in a jubilant cheer. _Oh well. Boys will be boys, I guess_.

_8: 21 A.M._

Everything had checked out with his gun. Harris was now entering the Zen 'no-thought' zone that snipers had been trained to enter before a mission. He hadn't served with the military for almost ten years now, but his shooting was still sharp as a had practiced shooting almost every day, using his calming drill before each session. He had to shut out the world. The crowd, the wind, his payment, his ex-wife, anything and everything that got in his way was a test. To score a kill, you must pass each test. Harris believed that God sent each test to him personally. He had to surmount his ex's lawyers looking for alimony, the crowd shouting for their hero, the ridiculous amount of money he was about to be paid. No, ridiculous wasn't the word for it. Incredible? Far too passé. Heavenly? No, sounded like a chocolate ad. Astronomical? Mmmm… maybe. Gettin' there. How about Inconceivable? Oh, that was good. He liked that. Agh! Wait! No! No no! Concentrate! You _gotta make this shot_, or you won't get paid. That alone was enough to snap him back into his detached state.

The crowd cheered. He saw the limo turn the corner onto the street, four hundred yards away, by his calculations. He could just barely make out four figures in the car. That's right; he had been told that there was a private driver for them.

Three hundred ninety yards.

_8:22 A.M._

Sora stood and raised his hand far above his head as the limo rounded the corner. The Keyblade appeared in a flash of light. The crowd shouted for joy as he slowly rolled past. This was a nice way to go if you weren't in a hurry. It took his mind off of the undoubtedly snore-worthy meeting coming up. He watched as Riku followed suit and was greeted with another cheer. _They love me!_ Sora thought. _The love us! We're the biggest celebrity in all the worlds right now! I could definitely get used to driving around in an open limo like this one._

Somebody from the crowd threw a paper airplane at the Keyblade Master. He expertly caught it; his reflexes honed sharp from years spent fighting the Heartless. He opened it to see a detailed pencil sketch of himself and Kairi standing on their favorite island. They were on the dock with the waterfall in the background. He noted with some amusement that the entrance to the Secret Place was decidedly absent. _There's still one place we can go that the media can't follow us,_ he thought with a smile. He looked in the general direction of the throw and winked with a smile. Every teenage girl there squealed and reached out to him. Some of the mothers looked at him dreamily; their husbands glowering behind them.

Sora tapped Kairi on the shoulder and handed her the drawing. Kairi accepted it. She looked it over for a few seconds before handing it back, saying "It's good. It's even better than Naminè's work." She felt a strange wave of resentment sweep over her and said "Oh, don't take it personally, Naminè. Somebody's got to be better than you." She giggled as she handed it back.

Sora had felt a similar wave of resentment. Roxas knew when his girl was being dissed.

_8:23 A.M._

There was a metallic _click_ as the magazine slid into the bottom of the gun. Harris loaded one bullet into the firing chamber and turned the safety off. The gun was now loaded and dangerous. He looked out the window.

Two hundred sixty yards.

_8:24 A.M._

"Kairi, let me ride in the front for a bit!"

Sora began to climb over the seat to the front as Kairi stepped over the central console. Sora plopped himself into the seat, bouncing as the cushioning underneath him recoiled. He liked riding up front, and it was a one-up to Riku, who immediately spoke up.

"Come on, Sora, that's cheating."

Sora turned around and smiled. "By whose rules?"

Riku had to shout to be heard over the crowd. "They don't belong to anyone, they're just rules! Don't make me beat you up again!"

_8:25 A.M._

_Two hundred yards. Time to go, _Harris thought as he opened the window. Several other windows were open, the room's occupants leaning out to get a better view of the most famous hero the worlds had ever known. He walked farther back into the room to keep himself hidden. He shouldered the rifle and looked down the scope at the threesome. They were all smiling and waving. The boys' expressions looked genuine, but the girl's was definitely a façade. He could tell how close they all were. Odds are they never left each others' sides. What a shame to ruin such a close friendship. Although, if his employer was to be believed, the spiky one and the girl were not just friends.

One hundred seventy-five yards. Harris put the crosshairs over the head of the spiky-haired one.

One hundred fifty yards. Time slowed to a crawl.

One hundred forty yards. He rested his finger on the trigger, ready to fire.

130. The limousine slowed down.

128.

127.

126.

At one hundred twenty-five yards, Harris suppressed a small twinge of guilt and pulled the trigger. The rifle made a sound like a muffled sneeze, kicked, and the bullet flew.

_8:25 A.M._

_The same time._

Riku could swear he felt the limo slow down. As he looked at the crowd, his doubts were silenced. The limo driver had simply taken his foot off of the gas pedal. The motorcycle police behind them exchanged quizzical looks, but continued anyway. Riku, however, knew that they couldn't waste time if they were to get to the meeting on time. He leaned up next to the driver.

"Hey, pick it up. We've got a schedule to keep."

The driver turned to him with a confused look on his face. He pointed to his ear, then the crowd. _I can't hear you._

Riku cupped his hands around his mouth. "We've got a schedule_ – whoa!"_

He shouted in surprise as the windshield shattered. A small hole was in the passenger side. Riku ducked and felt a warm spray hit his face. From behind the driver's seat, he saw Sora collapse onto the console, holding his shoulder and screaming in agony. Kairi's shriek joined him. The entire crowd reacted as one, screaming and scattering in every direction. Riku wiped his face and saw red liquid on his hands. Kairi went to crawl over the seat when the driver jumped out of the limo, using the steering wheel to boost himself out. The car swerved, and a second hole appeared in the headrest of the rear seat. Riku peeked over the edge of limo in time to see the driver disappear into the terrified crowd.

Policemen abandoned their motorcycles and drew their pistols, looking for the assassin. One ran to the limo and jumped into the driver's seat.

"Who's hurt?" he shouted to Riku. "Anyone but him?"

Riku looked at Kairi, huddling behind the seat. "No, just Sora. What the hell just happened?"

The cop screeched the tires as he attempted to get off of the parade route. "I don't know! No one knows! But we need to get him to the hospital now!" He pulled a white cloth out from inside his uniform. "Put this over his wound. Stop the bleeding or he'll never make it."

Sora whimpered as Riku pressed the cloth onto Sora's shoulder. He saw Sora's face contort in pain. _Hold on, buddy, _Riku thought, _you can't quit on us now. Just hold on._

The limo sped off towards the hospital.


	2. Doctors and Mercenaries

Chapter 2: Doctors and Mercenaries

_July 8, 8:26 A.M._

Harris stared slack-jawed at the limousine.

_You've got to be kidding me._

His first shot had gone low and away, striking the intended target in the shoulder. He had collapsed behind the dashboard of the limo, leaving no shot. With no one pressing the brake, the limo slowly inched forward, presenting a sliver of the boy's head. Harris lined up another shot, compensating for the off-center scope. He saw the driver grasp the steering column and vault over the door. The car swerved, and his shot flew harmlessly past the occupants and embedded itself in the back seat. He loaded a third bullet. By that time, a policeman had taken control of the car and driven it off of the parade route. He was left with no shot, a loaded rifle, and only a quarter of his final payment.

The payment!

Harris logged on to his electronic bank account. He immediately transferred the money into several different bank accounts set up under false names. In a few hours, account holders with names like Jacob Marley would be withdrawing exactly 400,000,000 Munny from their combined accounts. _Whew,_ he thought, _at least my payment is safe._ He unloaded the magazine and tucked it back into the foam mold in his suitcase. Within minutes, the rifle was disassembled and returned to the suitcase. Harris zipped the suitcase shut and stowed it under the desk.

He flopped into the bed, trying to think of a reason, any reason, for the bullet to have gone off target like it had. In all his missions, he had never seen a bullet act like that before. What should have been a clean shot to the head went a foot off target. Wind? No. The wind was negligible. It couldn't push it that far off target. Dirty barrel? He had cleaned it just hours before departure to the hotel. Bad bullet? No, it had pierced the windshield, the kid's shoulder, and the seat behind him. Bullet was fine.

After twenty minutes of racking his mind for a solution, there was a knock at his door. He apprehensively walked to the peephole and saw two policemen standing there. _They found me? How the hell did they already find me?_ He opened the door slowly, ready to be shot as soon as the policemen saw him. When they simply stood there, he asked "Can I help you, officers?"

The cop on the right started to speak. He was tall and skinny, but he looked very heavyset in his body armor. Harris wouldn't be able to take him down like that.

"We're placing this building under lockdown. If you need food, there is going to be a cafeteria set up in the ballroom until the lockdown is lifted."

Harris feigned innocence as best he could. "What do you mean by 'lockdown?' Like a quarantine? Is someone sick?"

The second officer, a muscular man of average height, spoke quietly. "The Keyblade Master Sora has been shot. The entry wound suggests the shooter was in this building. We're not letting anyone in or out until he's caught." A shiver ran down Harris's spine. He was stuck with no hope of escape. Eventually the Superior Court would issue warrants for everyone in this building, and his rifle would be found with exactly two bullets missing. His earlier visions of drinks and girls melted into a nightmare of metal bars and big sweaty inmates. His panic reaction was to flee, but his military training forced him into a clear mindset. Even if he ran now, the two officers would overpower him instantly. He feigned surprise at the news. "Oh my God! Is he okay? My daughter loves him! She's got a big poster of him in her room!"

The officers looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "Right now he's at an undisclosed hospital awaiting surgery. You can tell your daughter not to worry, sir. That Keyblade of his makes him inhumanly tough. He should be fine, provided his surgeon doesn't kill him. Now excuse us, we need to inform the other guests of this development." They brusquely strode past him to the next door. Harris closed the door and almost fainted from the suspense. He still had some time to get out. He still had an escape plan.

That, of course, was in the hands of his employer.

_10:13 P.M._

"Okay, your ID checks out. Follow me, please."

The security guard led Riku and Kairi down the hospital hall. The stark white light emphasized the paleness of their faces. They had spent most of the day in the waiting room of the hospital. They were both stunned at what had happened. Neither of them had changed clothes, and there was still a spattering of red on their upper torsos. Finally, after four hours, an exhausted surgeon told them that the surgery had gone well. His superhuman recovery rate would let him accept visitors in about eight hours. As soon as eight agonizing hours had ticked away, Riku demanded to see Sora. What ensued was a nearly two-hour battle with security in an attempt to convince them that yes, he _really was Riku._

Now that he had been verified, he and Kairi followed the security guard to the room that Sora was in. The door was guarded by two policemen with assault rifles and full body armor. One stepped forward to block the newcomers from entering.

"No entry without proper clearance."

The security guard handed the ID confirmation to the policeman. He stared at it from behind his Plexiglas visor for several seconds before turning to the other guard and nodding.

Riku and Kairi walked into the room as the second policeman opened the door for them. Sora was lying on the bed with his eyes shut. When he heard the door open, he groaned aloud.

"What are you gonna stick me with now?"

Riku turned to Kairi and held a finger to his mouth. _Quiet._ He walked up next to Sora's bed. Kairi was visibly struggling with her desire to shout at the top of her lungs, squeeze Sora, and never let go. Riku had a small smirk on his face as he spoke.

"Not much. You're just stuck with us."

Sora immediately snapped his eyes open to see his two best friends hovering over his bedside. Kairi couldn't contain herself any longer. She squealed and threw her arms around Sora's neck. Sora could only bring his right arm up to return the embrace. Kairi spoke softly into his ear.

"Oh, I'm so happy to see you again, Sora. I was going to lose my mind if I had to wait any longer out there."

Sora made a small sound of satisfaction. "Get bored waiting?"

Kairi didn't budge an inch. "No. The nurses didn't like me asking what was happening every five minutes."

Sora laughed quietly. The motion set off pain in his shoulder, but he was able to ignore it now that Riku and Kairi were here. "Were they getting irritated with you?"

Kairi's voice gained a slight whine to it. "I was worried! You were in surgery for hours! Can you really blame me?"

He kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I'm glad you weren't bored. Now please let me talk to Riku. Just don't – NNNGH." Sora winced as Kairi's arm brushed his wounded shoulder. She gasped as he continued with great effort, "Touch. My. Shoulder. Ungh. Oh. Ow."

Riku chuckled as he walked to the other side of the bed. "You're such a wimp, Sora. One little bullet wound and you need surgery and bed rest." He examined the plastic bags on Sora's IV hanger.

Sora turned to him with a small smile. "You're seriously taunting me while I'm in a hospital bed?"

Riku smiled but didn't look away from the IV rack. "I call 'em like I see 'em."

Sora rolled his eyes while Kairi stood in faux shock. She stroked Sora's hair and kissed him on the forehead. "He's just so mean sometimes, isn't he?" They both giggled.

Riku was still fascinated with the IV. "Yep, that's me, Mister Kick 'Em While They're Down. Hey Sora, you got any idea what these are?"

Sora shifted so he was sitting against the plastic headboard. "I dunno. Read 'em off to me."

"Morphine, L-Dopamine, Thalidomide, Diazepam, Adrenaline, and some unmarked."

Sora strained to remember what the nurses had told him in his post-surgical haze. "Um, I think the first two are painkillers of some sort. The second two are sedatives. I think Diazepam is Valium. The last one's artificial adrenaline to keep me out of a coma. This is powerful stuff I'm on."

"Dope, Valium…" Riku contemplated Sora's words. "Think you can hook me up?"

"Riku!" snapped Sora and Kairi sternly.

He laughed and threw up his hands. "Relax. I was kidding. Sora gets to be the junkie 'cause he was shot. Fair enough." He smiled at he couple. "Besides, I don't need drugs; I'm high on life."

Sora and Kairi looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

_10:57 P.M._

Brian Harris tried to enjoy the Blitzball game on TV, but Blitzball was the last thing on his mind, even if it was the semifinals. He was dreading the eventual phone call from his employer. He had rehearsed exactly what he needed to say. His eyes kept darting from the TV to the phone. He was so worried that he had watched daytime TV. He _never_ watched daytime TV. He had actually once shocked himself with a stun gun to show what he would do to avoid watching daytime TV back when he was in the Army. Everyone had wet their pants; Harris from the stun gun, his platoon from laughing. But now times were different, and he had watched from infomercials to primetime without so much as changing the channel.

When the phone finally rang, Harris swore his heart missed a beat. He had to take a few deep breaths before picking up the receiver. "Brian Harris."

"Harris, what the hell happened out there?"

Harris replied nervously, "The server farm gave me more trouble than expected." As odd as his response seemed, it had a special meaning: _Begin using code phrases._

The man on the other line didn't miss a beat. "Did you talk to the IT guys there?" _What went wrong?_

"Yes, but they were only mildly helpful." _Shot missed; mild injury._

"Are you going back tomorrow?" _Do you have another opportunity?_

Harris gulped. "No, they're closed tomorrow." _Not for a while._

"Dammit, these are big customers! We can't afford to lose their business!" _Your payment is suspended._

"Yeah, about that. This hotel is under lockdown now. You may want to send someone else."

"Lockdown?"

"Yeah."

The man on the other side swore. "Well, you'd best find a way to get out, or it's your ass in a sling." No code was necessary.

"Yes sir. I will, sir."

"You'd better. Any time wasted is coming out of your sick leave." _You don't have time to waste._

"I know. It's late here, sir. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Not until you've fixed those damn servers." _Don't bother coming back if the job isn't finished._

"Yes sir. Goodnight sir."

"Whatever. It's noon here." The other man hung up.

_July 9, 7:21 A.M._

Kairi awoke curled up in an easy chair surrounded by white walls and fluorescent lighting. Her initial confusion was banished by her recollection of yesterday's horrifying events. She lifted her head to see Sora sleeping peacefully on his bed. Kairi sighed. He was so cute when he slept. All those times of rowing out to the island and finding him napping of the beach reminded her of why she loved him so much.

She looked down to see Riku spread out on the floor. He had commandeered a stack of hospital gowns and was using them as a pillow. She quietly giggled as he mumbled something about "There's too many cookies, I can only autograph Oreos right now…" His dreams were often of the far-fetched variety.

Kairi stood, stretched, and had a sense of déjà vu. This was not the first time she had spent the night in a hospital room easy chair. Sora had once been shocked by a frayed cord at a party about two months after his return. Kairi refused to let anyone call an ambulance, opting instead to drive him to the hospital herself, numbing his pain with Cure spells along the way. Once he had stabilized enough to eat, she had used her celebrity status to bring him home-cooked meals. Sora still maintained that the first meal she brought him – a flame broiled cheeseburger with homemade fries and a milkshake – was the best meal he had ever eaten, and he had eaten at some swank restaurants since his return. Kairi had cooked his meals, slept in an uncomfortable chair, and fended off prying nurses, all to be with him while he was down. She was not new to the idea of waking up in a hospital room that was not hers.

Of course, _last_ time the biggest worry was some minor brain damage. (After that incident, Riku always loudly proclaimed that there _was_ brain damage, which got Sora's blood boiling.) Gunshot wounds were a whole new ballgame.

She shifted to her other side and felt something in her pocket. She reached in and pulled out the heart crystal Sora had given her. It wasn't as brilliant in the fluorescent lights as it had been in the sunset. The pink was slightly washed out, and the orange didn't burn with the same intensity. Nevertheless, it was beautiful, and Kairi held it close to her chest. Maybe if she held onto it forever, they would never be separated.

As she sat there staring into the crystal, she saw Sora gently stir in his bed. Kairi walked to his bed and sat on the edge. Sora opened his eyes and, seeing Kairi sitting at his side, smiled a small, tired smile. Kairi returned the smile. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Mmmh. It's already morning? I feel like I just went to sleep."

"That's because you always wake up at noon."

Sora chuckled. "Would you love anyone else?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way." She leaned over and kissed him.

The sound of muffled voices outside the door caught their attention. There was a hollow _chunk_ as the electronic lock disengaged. The two teens watched as the door swung open and the biggest man they had ever seen in their lives walked in. Riku, who had been sleeping on the floor with a stack of commandeered hospital gowns for a pillow, awoke with a start. He stood a full foot shorter than the mountain of a man that had just entered. His muscular body looked like so many twigs compared to the newcomer.

The man quickly surveyed each teen. His eyes settled on Sora. He began to speak.

"I am Dylan Maxwell of Donner Security Consultants. The King has hired my company to protect you, Sora. I or one of my men will be with you at all times." He now addressed Riku and Kairi. "I must ask you two to leave. Sora and I must speak privately."

Kairi turned back to Sora and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "I'll be back later," she whispered in his ear, "once the Incredible Hulk is gone." He smiled as she and Riku slowly walked out of the room. The door lock clicked into position as they left.

Maxwell sat in the seat that had earlier been occupied by a sleeping Kairi. "Now, you may be too drugged to fully appreciate this, Sora, but someone tried to kill you. If that hasn't sunk in yet, you'd better make sure it does. This is as dangerous as it gets. Poison can be detected, and there are antidotes. You can fend off knife attacks yourself. Bombs need to be planted, and a hit-and-run isn't reliable enough. A sniper is undetectable until he strikes, and when he does, it is often with lethal efficiency. I don't suppose you've given any thought to the notion that you are alive by sheer luck?" Sora stared blankly at him.

He continued. "I thought not. However, there is a silver lining to this. Whoever wants you dead obviously has the resources to pull together enough cash to get someone to shoot at the Keyblade Master. That or they can counterfeit it well enough to fool a professional. That narrows down the list of suspects. Now it's your turn, Sora. Think into your past. Do you know of anyone who hated you enough to have you killed? Anyone you didn't destroy years ago?"

Sora still sat petrified. Maxwell let a touch of impatience into his voice. "Look, this assassin failed the first time. He undoubtedly was promised a hefty sum to finish the job. He'll take the very next chance he gets. My job is to prevent that chance from ever happening. I can't do that if I have no idea what I'm supposed to be protecting you from. Who wants to kill you? Enemies from your Heartless-slaying days? Older? Newer?" Sora remained silent. "Maybe one of your friends? Some behind-the-scenes drama? I need information, Sora!"

The idea that his friends would try to have him _killed_ was too much for his drugged brain. He tried to shout at Maxwell; tell him that he was insane for even _considering_ that one of his friends would do such a thing. His face drained of color. He fell back onto his pillow, fighting a blackness that began to creep in from the edge of his vision. His entire being struggled against the coming darkness, but it mercilessly pushed into the center of his vision.

Maxwell looked at the heart rate monitor next to Sora's bed. It emitted an unchanging tone and flashed a large number 0 next to a flat line. Within seconds, nurses with a defibrillator and crash cart burst into the room. One of the nurses attempted to lead Maxwell from the room, but he flashed his company logo and the scroll with the King's seal on it. The nurse returned her attention to the crashing young hero in the bed.

The nurses pulled Sora's gown down to his waist. One nurse placed the defibrillator paddles on his chest. There was a high-pitched tone as the paddles charged. The nurse prepared to unleash the built-up charge. Her assistant called out the charge.

"200 Joules."

"200 – Clear!"

A massive spasm rocked Sora's body, but he remained flatlined. The paddles recharged.

"225 Joules."

"225 – Clear!"

Another shock jolted the spiky-haired boy, but no heartbeat returned. Another shock followed. And another. And another. Just as the nurses were about to give up, the sixth jolt was followed by the return of a weak pulse. A visible wave of relief swept over the group of nurses. The relief was shattered, however, when Sora's doctor stormed into the room.

"What the hell is going on here? Who's this clown?"

"Dylan Maxwell, Donner –"

The doctor grimaced. "Ah yes, the head goon of Somebody-or-Other's Watchdogs for Hire. Listen, strongman, you may be his loyal bodyguard, but while the kid's here, he's under my care. You're obviously not helping him recover, so get out of here before I have to call _my_ goons at security." It was an empty threat; the doctor knew there was no chance the security guards could do anything against this monster. But if he didn't say that, there was nothing to say.

Maxwell obviously didn't buy it either. Instead, he produced the scroll with the King's seal on it. "I have a contract with the King to protect this boy at all times. I must insist that I am allowed to remain here, Doctor…" he looked at the doctor's white lab coat. "Steele." An ironic name for such a thin, utterly weak-looking man. It didn't suit his body so much as his disposition. Or maybe his hair.

The doctor had to summon his last reserves of courage to resist the urge to back down now. "The King, huh? Lemme see that scroll."

The doctor accepted the scroll from Maxwell. He read the over once, then looked up. Maxwell's eye's narrowed.

"Are they satisfactory, _Doctor?_"

The doctor had found some new confidence in the contract's terms. "I am required by law to say yes and allow you to stay." Maxwell allowed a cocky smile to play across his face before the doctor continued. "However, there is one clause that allows for your removal by the proper authorities, should the situation warrant it. While Sora is here, that 'proper authority' is _me._ Should this incident be repeated, I will personally chase you from this hospital for good. Is that clear, _mercenary?_"

Dr. Steele was surprised at the confidence in his words. They even seemed to have a slight momentary effect on Maxwell, who then snatched the scroll back.

"Crystal, Doctor."

_July 11, 11:56 A.M._

Sora was sipping orange juice from a plastic cup with a straw when Dr. Steele walked into his room holding a clipboard.

"I have good news, Sora. Your progress is such that you can be released today after some… paperwork clears. You know, administrative stuff." The doctor hoped the lie held. "It shouldn't be long."

Sora perked up at the news. "All right! I can go home?"

The doctor frowned. "Not really. You'll be going to the Donner Security Consultants' private facility. You will be held there until the assassin is caught. You'll be leaving once your bodyguards give it the all-clear."

The news disheartened Sora. "But the guy said he'd always be with me. Doesn't that mean that my friends and I can go anywhere and still be protected?"

Sora's doctor pulled up a chair next to Sora's bed. He took his reading glasses off and set them on the nightstand. "Sora, let me give you some advice. Not as your attending physician, but as someone concerned for your welfare. Don't put too much trust in this Dylan Maxwell character. He has orders to protect your 'best interests,' but he gets to decide what those interests are. I've seen the contract myself; you have no say in the matter," he said as Sora opened his mouth to speak. "Please, for the sake of everyone you care about _stay out of trouble_. I know that may be hard for you, but it is vital to your friends' lives. This man calls himself a 'security consultant,' but he's a mercenary through and through. He's out to get paid, not to be noble. If Riku and Kairi die excruciating deaths, but you live by a thread, he collects a handsome fee. I'm not sure why King Mickey didn't extend protection to your friends. My guess is that these mercenaries would only accept the terms on such short notice if they only had one person to protect. Make no mistake, these men are the best of the best, but they place their well being over your own. Just, please, _be careful_. Wait for the police investigation to be completed, and_ then_ go wild." The doctor looked into Sora's eyes. "Do you understand?"

Sora nodded uncertainly. "I think so. If my friends are in danger, these men won't lift a finger to save them?"

The doctor exhaled a sigh of relief. "Exactly." Good. The boy understood the gravity of the situation.

"Okay. I'll keep my nose clean."

"Good." The doctor managed a weak smile. "Well, you should be able to leave shortly. Until then, your lunch is here. Last hospital food meal!"

_4:16 P.M._

"Four hours? It took you _four hours_ to decide that a _hospital_ is safe?"

Maxwell let the comment bounce off of him as he led Sora to the waiting armored car. He had taken more irritating charges before. Sora followed him out the doors of the hospital and to the car. He stopped just before he got in. "Is everything going to take four hours?"

Maxwell looked down on him from his 6' 11" height. Sora's irritated face appeared to be a mile away. It looked like he could reach down and throw the skinny boy clear out of the city with one muscle-bound arm. "If it means you stay safe, then everything will take four hours." He turned to the driver. "I'll be about five minutes behind you. Take pre-planned route Beta to the Doghouse." He turned to the parking garage and walked away.

Sora sat down and slammed the door shut. "What's next? Test my food for poison? Wire my room with cameras? Plant a tracker underneath my skin?" he mumbled angrily to himself.

The mercenary in the passenger seat turned around to face Sora. "Oh, we'll be doing more than that. You'll be staying at our controlled-access facility on this world. You'll only be able to go out into the interior courtyard, and even then only at specific times. And you don't have to worry about the tracker. We found a very convenient 'incision' to place it during your surgery." The mercenaries in the front howled with laughter. Sora glanced at his own shoulder in horror. The bandages made his shirt sit strangely.

Suddenly, a rapid beeping sound filled the car. The hired soldiers drew their weapons and looked out the window for an attacker. Sora pulled his cell phone from his pocket. The mercenary in the passenger seat snatched it from Sora's grasp and snapped it in two.

"You idiot. Don't you know cell phones can be tracked?"

Sora stared at him slack-jawed. This was getting ridiculous.

"I can't talk to my friends?"

"No."

The goon's simple response made Sora lift his hand to summon the Keyblade, but he thought better of it. _If I kill them now, I'll be completely vulnerable._ Sora shook his head rapidly. _Jeez, their paranoia is getting to me._

"Why can't I talk to my friends?"

The mercenary turned to face Sora again. "You wanna know why? It's because you were shot at, and we don't have a clue who did it. We don't know who's working with your enemies at this point."

Sora's eyes narrowed at the goon. "My friends aren't the kind of scum you're used to dealing with. They're good people with light hearts. They wouldn't sell me out for the universe."

The mercenary was ready for that response. "You think so? Look at this." The goon handed Sora a picture of two men that looked very much alike on a beach with two women. "That's my brother." The men were smiling and holding beer bottles. "Does he look like the type to sell me out?"

Sora stuttered his response. "N-no."

The mercenary continued. "He tried to kill me with a bomb on my front door. He was to be paid ten million Munny. He lived just long enough to regret it. I didn't get away unscathed, though." He held up his right hand. The index and middle fingers were missing. "He got some of me." He turned towards the windshield.

Sora sat silently, considering what the mercenary said. _Would my friends do this to me? Would Riku? He's tried to kill me before, after all. No! This Riku would die for me. Maybe Kai- No! Don't even think that! She'd give her life for me if I simply asked for it. Maybe the Twilight Town gang? Some show of force to intimidate Riku and Kairi? What? That doesn't even make sense! Not to mention that they're constantly flat broke. They can't even afford train tickets for the lot of them, much less an _assassin.

_Or am I wrong about all of them? _Is _there a conspiracy? A plot to have me killed? Is it a power-hungry enemy from the Heartless days that I didn't quite destroy? There must be an enemy, someone I forgot. No, there isn't. But there has to be. There must. There is still an enemy out there somewhere._

He looked to Roxas for ideas, but felt only the same waves of confusion and paranoia. He became irritated with his inability to figure it out.

_Maybe it's a Nobody? Did they even exist anymore? No, they had faded into darkness long ago. Hadn't they?_ He was sure of it. But then, four days ago, he was certain he had no more enemies. One bullet changes everything.

His thoughts were cut short when the car stopped at a gatehouse outside of a massive brick structure with small, barred windows. There was a roof with wooden planks to divert water off during rain. In fact, it almost reminded him of a-

The mercenary in the passenger seat spoke up again.

"Welcome to the Doghouse, kid."

A/N: Forgot to say this last time, probably should have done that: This is my first fic, so reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks!


	3. Fourth Precinct

Chapter 3: Fourth Precinct

_July 11, 6:35 P.M._

Sora sat on his bed in DSC-SF(CA) 01 – North Wing. It was more colloquially known as the Doghouse for its orange-red walls and slanted roof plated with unstained wood. The bed was comfortable, sure, but it lacked the sense of security that a bed should have. He was surrounded by concrete, steel plate, and heavily armed men with bad attitudes, but he still felt like he was on Death Row.

That may have been because his only window was constructed of two-inch thick bulletproof glass and had stainless steel bars every three inches. His room had bare off-white walls and a single light fixture in the center of the ceiling. There was a table with one chair, a smaller table that supported the TV, his bed, and a door to the small bathroom. Behind the walls, he had been told, was a layer of concrete and steel a foot thick. The inner door was steel coated with titanium alloy. He had only seen the outer door once.

He was told when to eat, when he could go outside, when to go to sleep, and what he could watch on the small TV in his room. His life was essentially that of a convicted felon.

In fact, his current status was considered "protective custody", which was one word away from the status he wanted for whoever had shot him.

Fifteen minutes after he had been placed here, he tried to unlock the door with the Keyblade. He was met with failure after failure. When his dinner arrived, he feigned curiosity about the lock system the doors used. The mercenary who brought Sora his meal smiled wryly. "The outer door uses a model SSL-45934-N keypad with titanium locking bars. No lock on the inner door. It's barred from the outside. You think we're stupid or something?"

His hopes at escape snuffed, he resigned himself to sitting on his bed in a bad mood. He knew it wouldn't help, but it seemed the only thing _to_ do. The drywall would collapse after a single swipe of the Keyblade, but there was only concrete beneath it. The walls looked nice as they were, and Sora didn't want to add any holes.

Flashing lights outside his window attracted his attention. A series of police cars were making their way down the street. They flanked a silver car with no special insignia or markings of any kind. They turned down a particularly wide boulevard and vanished from sight.

_Odd,_ Sora thought. _Why would they escort a civilian car?_

_6:40 P.M._

Lieutenant Robert Dennison followed the police escort to the station parking lot. As the lead cars stopped, their passengers stepped out with pistols and shotguns drawn. He parked his car between two cruisers as officers swept the area outside of the Fourth Precinct headquarters. He opened his door and stood up, his bulletproof vest pressing his tie knot into his throat. It would be a relief to take it off.

The lieutenant ascended the steps to the main lobby. The receptionist directed him to the conference room on the second floor. He stepped in and unstrapped his vest as his assistant handed him a cup of black coffee with one sugar.

One man stood up from his briefing papers and greeted the young officer. "Ah, good to see you, Lieutenant Dennison. I can't thank you enough for taking this case." The Commissioner turned to the table and addressed the seated number. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lieutenant Dennison of the Tenth Precinct. He's the best investigator on this world and he's here to help us catch this bastard."

He shook Dennison's hand. "It's a good thing you're here. We're stuck combing the Hotel Regal and, quite frankly, that isn't turning up anything."

Dennison released the elderly man's hand and sat down in his seat at the table. "Don't worry, Commissioner. I always get my man." He sipped his coffee and took pleasure in the bittersweet heat of the drink.

The lights dimmed as a projector quietly whirred to life in the rear of the room. One man stood up and walked to the screen. "Okay. This presentation represents our full intelligence on this matter. To start, we know that the parade was rerouted near the Hotel Regal approximately 36 hours beforehand at the mayor's request. However, the final route was actually planned by Sora and Riku themselves. That makes it unlikely that our fine, upstanding mayor is in on the deal.

The projector switched to a news camera view of the limo. The frames slowed to a crawl as Sora's expression changed from exuberance to one of shock, then changed again to one of agony as he collapsed on the central console.

"We know that the limo slowed down about fifteen seconds before the first shot was fired. This was not a part of the planned schedule." The video continued. The camera shook violently as the crowd panicked, and then stabilized in time to see the driver jump out of the limo. "The driver exited the vehicle just before the second shot. He vanished into the crowd soon after. He is still at large."

One man spoke from the darkness. "Can't we check his employment records? They should have all the information we need: name, address, family, and criminal record."

The presenter frowned. "We checked with his employer and cross-referenced the name with our database. No matches were found. He's been using a false identity for at least a year. Our John Doe here must be on the run from someone."

He continued. "Analysis of video footage and the entry wound on Sora's shoulder isolate the Hotel Regal as the only possible point of origin for the shot." The image switched to fragments of metal next to a magnified ruler. "The bullet was identified as a .308 caliber round. It deformed on impact with the windshield and then pierced Sora's shoulder. The fragments are consistent with those of a completely normal bullet."

The lieutenant listened as the presentation continued and dissolved into debate over the next course of action. It was established that the Superior Court was in the process of issuing search warrants for everyone in the Hotel Regal. The Commissioner and the head of the Homicide Unit were discussing the best course of action when Dennison spoke up.

"Have we contacted the witnesses?"

The room suddenly quieted as the occupants of the room gave Dennison confused looks. He pressed the matter.

"Have we contacted the other passengers yet? Here, hold on." He took the remote and played the news footage of the limousine again. "Those two. The silver-haired boy and the girl. Have we talked to them yet?"

The room picked up a quiet buzz as people asked each other if they had brought in the witnesses yet. Dennison downed the last of his coffee and stood. "Well, that's what we need to do. Get them together. All of them."

_7:34 P.M._

"No, I'm sorry, we can't leave just yet," Riku said with a shake of his head, "We're waiting to take our friend home. You know, Sora? The Keyblade Master? Spiky brown hair and a bullet wound in his left shoulder?" He sat back into the uncomfortable waiting room chair. "We're not talking to the police until we've seen him again."

The officer had been told to expect this response. The lieutenant had made him memorize a response. "Sora was taken into protective custody around four thirty. Right now, he's being transported to the police headquarters for questioning. We need to talk to you, too."

Riku stood, his anger obviously mounting. "You mean he hasn't been here for hours and we've been sitting here for nothing? Who's running this operation?"

The officer was mildly intimidated by the angry teen. If he wanted, Riku could whip out his Keyblade and run him through right then and there. But he'd looked down the barrels of weapons before. The only difference here was the weapon. "You'll be able to talk to Sora at the station after your individual questioning."

Kairi heard this and instantly sat up in her chair. "We can see him?" She turned to Riku. "Riku, we're going. Don't argue with me. Get up and follow the man or I'll drag you myself."

The sudden ferocity of her voice startled Riku, who leaned away from her, his eyes wide in shock. "Alright, we'll go." He let a mischievous grin play across his face as he adopted a damsel-in-distress voice. "Just please don't hurt me!" he cried in mock terror.

Hearing this, Kairi playfully grabbed Riku's collar and yanked him to his feet. "Do as I say and nobody gets hurt," she growled, playing along, "Now you're coming with me!"

She followed the policeman to his cruiser, still pulling Riku by the collar. The cop opened the door for her and she shoved Riku inside. She sat down next to him and summoned her Keyblade. Holding it to his throat, she turned to the driver, adopting a mobster accent. "All right, Rocco. Let's take 'im fer a ride."

The officer smiled and accelerated out of the hospital parking lot. Kairi spoke to the cop, her eyes never deviating from Riku's acting-terrified face. "How much ya think they'll pay fer this one?"

The cop adopted a similar accent. "I dunno, boss, but I wouldn't pay more'n six hundred Munny."

Riku shot the officer a dirty look as Kairi howled with laughter. He seized this opportunity to yank her Keyblade away and turn it on her. She stared at the point, unsure of what to do. An idea flitted through her mind. She turned her head slightly and focused off into the distance. Riku looked at the place she had looked just in time to realize that he'd been duped. Kairi retook her Keyblade and hit Riku on his forehead with her other palm.

"Yer a feisty one, you know that?"

"Ah! I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"

"Good. 'Cause if you do…" She waved the Keyblade's point in his face.

The cruiser turned into the station parking lot.

_8:00 P.M._

Lieutenant Dennison stirred his third cup of coffee as he sat in his makeshift office. It calmed his nerves, but didn't have the intellect-dampening effects of alcohol. He needed his mind sharp. Even so, this was nothing he couldn't handle. Given the lack of information, high profile, and obsessive media coverage of the case, it was exactly like so many of his previous assignments.

In about three days, his superiors would be breathing down his neck looking for progress. The reporters wouldn't give him a moment's peace until the whole thing was done. Afterwards, there would be TV specials on which he'd appear, books and articles for which he'd be interviewed, and that was only after he had written an exhaustive report detailing his every step.

There were some days he hated this job.

Something didn't add up, but then again, there was always something that didn't add up. This was different, though. His other investigations had turned up a dark time in the victim's past that was reason plenty for someone to order a hit. Sora's life, however, was one of the most extensively documented in the universe. The worst thing he had done was cheat on a spelling test in third grade.

Dennison sighed. He just needed a little more time to mull over his questions before he talked to the witnesses. Get the most information from each question. Maybe tomorrow, when he wasn't popping painkillers to alleviate his headache.

During his train of thought, there was a knock on his door. Assuming it was his bumbling assistant, he became irritated and rubbed his temple as he walked to unlock the door. _This had better be God._

He opened the door to reveal his assistant standing next to Riku and Kairi.

_Oh, God._

"I got them from the hospital like you told me to. Where do you want them? Interrogation?"

Dennison sipped from his coffee. "I don't think that will be necessary or even particularly useful. You wouldn't have been able to get them out of the hospital if they didn't want to be here. And remember, locking these two in a room isn't going to stop them from going anywhere."

"Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Need anything else?"

"Yeah, some Vicodin."

"Seriously?"

"No. Go home for the day. I'll see you tomorrow."

The officer left without another word. Dennison turned to the teens standing outside hid door. "Please, step inside. Take a seat."

Riku and Kairi sat down in folding chairs in front of Dennison's temporary desk. Reports and briefings lay scattered on the desktop. The walls had pictures of Sora during the parade tacked to them, which stirred memories of the horrifying incident. Riku recognized his own map with the parade route in orange highlighter. A trash can held several foam cups and a sugar cube bag.

Dennison sat in his swivel chair. "Can I get you two anything to drink? Coffee? Water? Liquor?" Riku and Kairi looked at him in confusion. "I'm authorized to do just about anything to get answers." He leaned back in his chair. "It's amazing how little 'civilization' cares about their values when something dear is on the line. I could stuff the entire Congress of this world in this room if it meant they wouldn't have to tell the universe that they had let Sora die on their watch. I can't go around flaunting it like that, but that's the idea. So, anything to drink?"

Riku smiled and was about to speak when he saw Kairi's stern gaze. His shoulders drooped as he said "Just a water for me, thanks." Kairi politely refused. Dennison reached under his desk and pulled out a plastic bottle of water, which he handed to Riku.

The lieutenant began to speak. "So here's what's going to happen. You're each going to be escorted to separate rooms. You'll have your individual interrogations, then you and Sora will be interrogated as a group." Dennison saw the worried look on Kairi's face. "Don't worry, Princess. It's just an official term. No pipe wrenches or waterboarding for you. Just questions about what you saw."

"Once that is complete, Sora will be returned to protective custody with Donner Security. You'll be pretty much free to do what you want on this world. We can't have you leave, though. The security forces at the Gummi Hangar have orders to keep you on this world." Dennison said, emphasizing the last two words. "You'll be able to leave when we know who we're chasing."

Dennison quickly remembered who he was talking to. "We can arrange for a room or rooms wherever you want." He dropped his voice lower. "I can also buy you some time together after the group interrogation. You want it?"

Both Riku and Kairi immediately gave their affirmatives.

_11:44 P.M._

After hours of questioning, the three friends were together in the interrogation room while Dennison stalled their release papers. As soon as the interrogator left, Kairi had nearly tackled Sora trying to hug him. He hit the wall and groaned as a spike of pain shot through his shoulder. After a minute of silent embrace, they pulled their chairs into a circle and talked about everything that had happened over the past few days, ending with them discussing their interrogations.

"My interrogator was really mean!" Kairi said with a pout. "He didn't like me at all."

"Yeah, the guy who talked to me was a jerk, too. The first thing he did was call me a coward for ducking behind the seat in the limo. Not directly, but he definitely called me out." Riku crossed his arms. "I'd like to see _him_ stand up to a sniper."

Sora raised an eyebrow at his friends. "Weird. The guy who questioned me practically acted like one of those teenage girls that always turn out to see me. You know, the ones Kairi hates." He saw Kairi wrinkle her nose at the thought. Riku was still glowering in his chair. He mumbled about how he still didn't like the cop who had questioned him. Kairi nodded in agreement.

Sora laughed once. "Guys, they're _interrogators._ It's, like, their _job_ to be mean. Besides, they're used to dealing with the shoot_ers_¸ not the people being shot _at_. This is as new for us as it is for them. Cut 'em some slack, will ya?"

The teens reluctantly agreed. Suddenly Riku's face lit up in a stroke of genius. "Sora, where is your room in the compound?"

Sora looked at him with confusion. "North Wing, facing the street. Why?"

Riku smiled with glee, very satisfied with his own ingenuity. "We could use flashlights on our windows for Morse code signals! We'll get a room across the street and we can send messages to each other whenever we want to!"

The idea took some time to sink in. Kairi was first to realize the implications of what he had said. "Riku, that's brilliant! How did you think of that?"

Riku smiled smugly. "I guess I'm just really _really_ smart."

The other two rolled their eyes.

"That's a great idea, Riku," Sora added, "but do you know Morse code? 'Cause I don't."

The look of smug satisfaction slowly melted off of Riku's face. "Oh. That's a problem." He looked to Kairi, who slowly shook her head. Riku hung his head in disappointment. "Well, so much for that idea."

Kairi had a quick idea. "Maybe we can have the lieutenant give us a key for Morse code. He might know it."

The idea returned a spark of life to the dejected Riku. "I suppose. We'll have to signal really slowly until we have it memorized. We'll probably need a 'repeat' signal, too."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Sora mused. "Maybe a three-second light. Just plain."

"That should work. Now, where's Rocco's boss?" Kairi looked out of the door window.

Sora looked at Riku for an explanation. "Her mobster name for the lieutenant's assistant. Don't ask more; it's just too weird."

Kairi adopted the mobster accent, not looking away from the window. "I'm holdin' Riku fer ransom. Two hundred million Munny in three days or he gets it." She looked at Riku and drew her finger quickly across her throat. He made his girliest whimper. Sora observed the whole spectacle in confusion. "You think Riku's worth that much?"

"Aw, come on! You're the second person to make that joke today!" Riku protested.

Kairi gave a small laugh. "But you still love us, right?" She smiled and opened her arms for a hug. Riku reluctantly accepted it, looking at Sora through narrowed eyes the whole time. _You suck._

About a minute later, Lieutenant Dennison walked through the door. "Alright, I can't stall them any more. It's time to go. Sora, you'll be picked up by DSC employees in about fifteen minutes. I've been instructed to escort Riku and Kairi to the hotel of their choice."

They all stood to leave. Riku and Dennison walked out to the lobby. Kairi grabbed Sora by the hand as he left. She pulled him to her and kissed him. She kissed him as though she may never see him again. She gave a spike of his hair her customary tug, then whispered in his ear.

"Be safe. I can't lose you again."

Sora kissed her on the temple. "I will. I have a promise to keep, remember?

They stayed in each other's arms, dreading the imminent loss of the other's company.

_July 12, 12:16 A.M._

"So where are you two staying?"

Riku and Kairi buckled into the back seat of Dennison's borrowed police car. They looked at each other, and then Riku spoke for both of them.

"Just head east on Valley Avenue. We'll pick one on the way."

Dennison drove out into the city. Riku stayed alert for the building Sora had described.

"_They actually call it the Doghouse. It's got orange walls and a wood-covered roof. It's huge; you really can't miss it. From here, I think it's on the left, but I could be wrong. Go down Valley Avenue."_

"_What floor should we stay on?"_

"_Fourth or fifth, if possible. I'm on the fourth floor, but the basement is a shooting range, so it juts up a bit. I'll be in between the floors of the hotel. Do you have the code sheet Dennison gave you?"_

"_Yeah. So, fourth or fifth. Talk to you later."_

"_Sort of."_

Within minutes, the imposing figure of Donner Security Consultants' secure facility appeared on the right side of the car. _Sora would forget something like that,_ Riku thought. He pointed a hotel out to Dennison. "That one there. Looks nice, huh? Kairi?"

Kairi looked at it indifferently. "Yeah, I guess." Riku shot her a quick look. _Play along!_

"Oh, but it's got a swimming pool! Good choice, Riku!" She smiled along.

Dennison had seen too many criminals try similar lies, and he was not about to be fooled by a pair of teenagers, no matter how devious they were. "Nice try. This is right next to the Doghouse." He looked into Kairi's eyes. "You aren't thinking of busting him out, are you?"

Riku cut in. "No. We've thought up a system to talk with him. We're using flashlights and Morse code. That's why we needed those code sheets. Please, just let us stay here."

Dennison hesitated for a quick moment, then shook his head. _I'm gonna regret this._

"Okay. Let's head inside and get you set up. One room, right?"

Riku looked at Kairi, who replied quickly. "Yes."

_12:22 A.M._

They were coming.

He had heard it in the lobby at dinner. They were beginning their search. When they reached the eighth floor, it was game over. Harris felt his mere apprehension morphing into actual fear.

He needed to ditch the rifle. But where? He could not deny them entrance; they had gotten warrants from the Superior Court. There was nowhere in his room he could stash it that would not be checked. It seemed hopeless.

As he walked down to the lobby for another bottle of whiskey, he saw a door slightly ajar. He slowly went to the door, quietly nudging the door open. His heart leapt when he saw that there was nobody in the room. He ran back to his room and grabbed his suitcase from under the pile of newly bought clothes he had delivered to him yesterday.

Harris looked around the room that was identical to his own. The window had a similar view down 37th street. Good. Everything was still plausible. He opened the closet to reveal a stack of suitcases. It took every ounce of his discipline to keep himself from shouting for joy at that moment.

He removed a few suitcases, taking careful note of their previous arrangement. He slid the black suitcase with the rifle in it behind the others, which, thankfully enough, were all a dark color of some kind. He replaced the other suitcases in nearly the same arrangement as they had been before his intrusion.

He poked his head out to make sure the room's occupants hadn't chosen that exact moment to return. Satisfied he had not been detected, he sauntered down to the lobby for his drink. He entered the elevator with a renewed hope.

As he approached the bar, he decided to splurge. Besides, he still had four hundred million Munny in his accounts. A stiff drink or two would be a good celebration.

"Bottle of white whiskey, if you've got any. Top-shelf stuff. Don't care about the cost."

The bartender handed him a glass bottle of clear liquid. He gave the man a big handful of Munny. "Keep the change. We could all use something uplifting right about now." He held up his bottle. "I already got mine."

When he got back to his room, he pulled out the cork and poured himself three fingers, taking small drinks. The first one felt like fire and tasted like paint thinner, but they only got better from there. They knew how to make this stuff in the mountains outside the city.

He finished the drink slowly, satisfied that he could enjoy the rest of his stay in peace.

A/N: There has been some confusion about this, so I'll clarify: The exchange rate I'm using is about 200 Munny per 1 American dollar. Watermelon slices at the beach = 2000 Munny. 2000/200 = 10, which is reasonable. Anyway, review please!


	4. Communication

Chapter 4: Communication

_July 12, 3:09 A.M._

Lieutenant Dennison collapsed on his bed in his apartment of the eighteenth floor of the complex. It was a simple affair; the walls were tan with few pictures hung. The kitchen, however, was quite grand. The Coffee Room, as Dennison occasionally called it, had brick walls, granite countertops, black appliances, stained oak cabinets with soft yellow lighting installed beneath them, and a hardwood floor. Dennison loved his kitchen.

He remembered the note his girlfriend had left him on the door. He pulled himself out of bed to read the brief bit of immaculate handwriting. _Dinner w/ my fam. on 17__th__? Call me if ok. –Becca. :3_

Yes. She had written "colon three".

Dennison's exhausted mind considered the invitation. More likely than not, he would be able to make it. Surely he could postpone his work on a Sunday evening. He wasn't technically supposed to work on Sundays. However, when he didn't, people died. That was simply out of the question.

He returned to his bed, mentally reviewing the case that had been dumped on him less than twelve hours ago. After he had dropped off Riku and Kairi, he had returned to Precinct Four to get copies of the news footage showing the shot. He spent the next hour and a half replaying the few seconds that mattered, eventually becoming numb to the pain shown onscreen.

Finally, when he couldn't focus his own eyes, he retired to his bed. He didn't know why he had suddenly remembered the note his girlfriend had left him. Maybe Sora and Kairi reminded him of his own relationship. They really were a cute couple. The pain they must feel, forcefully separated with no end in sight…

The lieutenant returned his thoughts to the case. He fell asleep mentally replaying the news footage, looking for any clue hidden away in its terrible frames.

_6:30 A.M._

The buzzer sounded, indicating that the outer door had opened. Its harsh sound awoke Sora. There was a sharp metal squeal and the inner door opened. Two mercenaries appeared. One held a stun gun; the other had Sora's standard-issue breakfast. The armed mercenary closed the door and barred it with another metallic shriek.

Sora tried to shake the sleep from his eyes as the mercenary set the tray down on Sora's miniature table. He looked at the clock on his wall; it read _12:28._ Oh. Right. It was still out of batteries. He yawned and stretched his arms. He winced as his shoulder twinged with pain. The mercenary stood by the table and looked Sora over.

"You look like hell. Metro Police keep you out late last night?"

Sora looked at the mercenary and squinted, momentarily blinded by the morning sunlight, indirect though it was. His close-cropped black hair was a stark contrast to the silvery clouds of dawn. "Yeah, till like, past midnight. But I got to see my friends, so it was worth it."

"Well, that's good." The mercenary looked away sheepishly. "I don't suppose I could ask you for your autograph?"

Sora raised an eyebrow at the mercenary, his eyes still half shut with sleep. "What?"

"I have a daughter about your age, and she's a really big fan," he explained quickly. "When I told her it was my job to bring you breakfast every day, she was so jealous that she wouldn't speak to me for hours. I told her I could get her your autograph if she came down for dinner yesterday. Not only did she fly down to the table, she practically kissed me." He let a small smile play across his face. "Apparently her boyfriend wasn't so thrilled."

Sora chuckled at the mercenary's tale. "Sure, I can do that. Got anything to write with?"

"Yeah, hold on." The hired soldier pulled out a small notepad and black pen. Sora accepted them and turned to an empty sheet. "What's her name?" he asked.

"Kaylee."

Sora shook the last remnants of sleep from his head. He uncapped the pen and began to write.

_Kaylee, _

_Stay true to your heart!_

_Sora_

He drew a quick Kingdom Key next to his name. He tore the sheet out from the notepad and handed it back to the mercenary, who thanked him and put the precious sheet in a pocket underneath his body armor. As the mercenary walked to the door, Sora called after him.

"Hey, what's your name?"

The mercenary looked over his left shoulder. "Anton."

"Nice to meet someone around here with a bit of decency."

Anton chuckled at the compliment. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Most people here say I'm too nice for a mercenary. That's why I end up taking breakfast to people in protective custody."

Sora sat up against the headboard of his bed. "Well, I'm glad it's you and not the jerk that brings me dinner. By the way, my clock is out of batteries. Can you have some more sent up?"

"I'll see what I can do. Most likely."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow."

The mercenary tapped twice on the door, waited two seconds, then tapped three more times. "Hopefully not before then." Sora shielded his ears from the screeching metal sound of the bar being lifted. Anton walked through the door, which was shut and barred with yet another metal scream.

Sora got out of his bed and sat down to breakfast, which was surprisingly hearty. Two poached eggs, two bacon strips, salted hash browns, and two buttered pieces of toast. He bit into a bacon strip and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. It was _good._ It may have been the best bacon he had ever tasted. The rest of the breakfast didn't disappoint.

The odd duality of the room made Sora's head spin. It looked and functioned like a prison cell, yet the food was incredible and the bed was better than at most hotels in the city, with the notable exception of the Hotel Regal. The guy who brought him dinner was an ass, yet Anton seemed like a perfectly likeable human being.

Strange. Very strange.

_9:34 A.M._

Corporal Mendez had been serving with the Comberth Harbor SWAT teams for almost six years now, but he had never seen anything like he was seeing now. The most prestigious hotel in the entire city had been completely locked down and teams were conducting a floor-by-floor search for the weapon in question.

He felt a sense of pride concerning the quality of the lockdown. There were armed guards at every exit, marksmen on adjacent buildings, and police cars completely surrounding the building. Streets leading up to the T-intersection in front of the hotel were tuned into makeshift cul-de-sacs. The lockdown was absolutely airtight.

His search had reached the eighth floor. On his way up, he had discovered enough dirty little secrets about the rich and famous to fill an entire issue of the local gossip magazines. Unfortunately, he had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so his tales of bulimics, pill freaks, and sex addicts would go with him to the grave.

He and his partner, Private Jenkins, stood in front of the seventh door on their list. Other two-man teams prowled the halls and rooms, searching for the .308 caliber sniper rifle that had somehow been smuggled past security.

Jenkins knocked on the door. A young man wrapped in a towel opened the door. He was momentarily stunned by the two imposing figures standing in the door. A feminine voice came from the room.

"Who is it, Steve?"

"The police. They need to search the room." He had heard the rumors and announcements.

"They're here already?"

"Yes. Just hold on." The man turned to the two SWAT officers. "Can you give my wife and me a moment to get dressed?" Jenkins looked into the room to see a young woman in the bed, pulling the sheets up to her neck. He looked to Mendez for the answer.

Mendez looked at his watch. "You have ninety seconds. We will break the door down at one hundred twenty," he said in his nasal Hispanic accent.

The man closed the door. There were sounds of frantic activity on the other side of the door. At exactly ninety seconds, Steve opened the door, wearing a white T-shirt and sweatpants. He stood next to his wife, who had donned similar apparel.

Mendez indicated the rear of the room to Jenkins, who proceeded to sweep the area, opening drawers and a suitcase that was sitting out. The contents were methodically searched and replaced.

Mendez immediately gravitated to the closet. He pulled out each suitcase in turn, placing them in orderly stacks in the center of the room when they contained nothing more dangerous than a can of pepper spray.

Finally, he pulled out a black suitcase from the back of the pile. The man and his wife exchanged puzzled looks. Mendez carefully set the suitcase on the bed. He carefully unzipped it.

Steve's wife timidly addressed Mendez. "Um, I've never seen that suitcase before…"

Mendez felt his heart skip a beat as he opened the suitcase. _Santa Maria…_

He raised his assault rifle at the young couple. "_Freeze!_ Hands on your head! Get on the ground! _Now!_"

Jenkins quickly leveled his own weapon as he heard his superior beginning the arrest. He stood between the two scared guests and the window, lest they decide to jump and take their secrets with them. The couple lay on their stomachs, heads facing each other. Mendez shouted out the door. "We're gonna need some backup in here!"

Four SWAT officers entered the room, rifles sweeping every angle. As two officers bent to handcuff the young twosome, Mendez began to recite their rights.

"You have the right to refuse questioning until such time as you have an attorney present. If you cannot afford an attorney, the city will provide you with one. You have the right to reasonable bail. You have the right to a trial by a judge and jury of peers. You have the right to a quick appeal should you request one."

Mendez put his face right in front of the young man, his visor touching the man's forehead.

"You have the right to kiss your ass goodbye, 'cause it's gonna _burn._"

_9:55 A.M._

Kairi awoke to the mellow song of a bird perched outside her window. She turned to see a mourning dove on the brick windowsill. She got up out of bed and walked to the window, her pajamas crackling with static from the bed sheets.

She opened the window, yet the bird did not fly. Kairi hoped it could sense that she meant it no harm. She stroked its head with her index finger as it quietly cooed sad notes.

The rumble of an approaching diesel engine scared the mourning dove away. Kairi's momentary regret was cut short when she saw that the tuck was labeled CH SWAT. For a moment, she thought it might be responding to a new development in Sora's case. She was about to turn on the local news when she remembered Riku's description of the city.

"_Comberth Harbor is a beautiful city. It's on a great world. Low pollution, right next to a mountain range, and has beaches to rival the ones back home."_

"_Wow!" Kairi had responded, intrigued by the prospect of an urban area in such a picturesque environment. "I can't wait to go!"_

_Riku's excitement lessened somewhat. "The only problem is the crime rate. Drugs and weapons flow like blood through that city. The police have their hands full."_

_Kairi let Riku's bleak assessment bounce off her eardrums, ready for next week's trip to Tarzan's treehouse, after which she would meet Sora and Riku in Comberth Harbor._

She dismissed the otherwise odd event with a quick wave of her hand.

As she set the TV remote down, she saw Riku twitch in his bed. A devious idea entered her mind and wouldn't leave. She crept up next to Riku's sleeping face, but she hesitated. _If I want to back out, now's the time. _Her mischievous streak won out. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"_Heartless!_"

She knew Riku's reflexes were good, but the blazing speed with which he reacted left her in shock. He snapped his arm up and around the back of Kairi's neck. He pulled her down into the pillow next to him hard. His hand pinning her arm, he flipped her over as he lifted himself to his knees to face his attacker.

He pinned her other arm and her legs with his shins. Only after Kairi was completely trapped did Riku realize who he had captured. He exhaled with relief. "Oh, it's just you, Kairi. I was afraid it was somebody dangerous!"

Kairi pretended to look insulted. "Oh, and I don't qualify?" She hit him in the chest. "Riku, that's just mean!"

They shared a laugh until they realized the awkward position they were in: Kairi was on her back with Riku directly on top of her.

He quickly got off of the bed, clearing his throat and turning away in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. Kairi's face turned a deep shade of pink as she picked her clothes for the day.

She quickly brushed past Riku and entered the bathroom to change, hardly able to contain her embarrassment. For the first time since he had been taken to the hospital four days ago, she was glad Sora wasn't around. If he had seen them like that, it would have destroyed him.

And yet, as ashamed as she was, Kairi felt a deep, visceral, almost animal satisfaction as she recalled the incident. She recoiled from the emotion with fear. _What am I thinking? Four days of forced separation and I'm already replacing him with Riku? What's the matter with me? We've been apart longer that this before. We'd been able to keep in contact, but still!_

She walked out of the bathroom in her day clothes. Riku was already dressed. He was stuffing his wallet with Munny. He met Kairi's gaze and quickly looked back at his wallet as he began to speak.

"We should go get breakfast now, 'cause we're not going to eat again until, uh, you know…"

"Lunch?" Kairi said quietly.

"Yeah. That."

The two teens walked from their room to the elevator, the door lock clicking into place after them.

_10:10 A.M._

The phone rang next to Dennison's bed. He searched for it with his hand, not bothering to remove his face from the pillow. He found the handset and put it to his ear.

"This had better be important."

His assistant answered excitedly. "We've found it, sir!"

The lieutenant groaned at the officer's vagueness. "The winning lottery ticket?"

"The rifle, sir."

Dennison sat up, immediately awake. "What? Where?"

"Eighth floor, room 8059. Everything checks out, sir. The angles are right, the caliber is correct, and best of all, sir…" He paused for effect. "There are two bullets missing. The remaining two are the same make as the fragments recovered from Sora's shoulder."

The lieutenant jumped out of bed and began to assemble his suit. He'd more than likely have to make a statement to the news vultures today, explaining that he had found aweapon that matched the collected data, but it might not be _the_ weapon.

It was a load of crap and he knew it. The odds of there being a _second_ .308 rifle snuck past security on the eighth floor with a clean line of sight down 37th missing two bullets of the precise kind used against Sora were so low they weren't even worth mentioning. But in his experience, it was always better to understate the situation rather than give false pretenses of progress.

He hung up the phone and began to put his suit on.

_10:34 A.M._

Harris watched the police cars take the innocent couple away with a smug satisfaction. His evil plot had worked; the police were taking John and Jane away without a second thought. If they had searched the solid waste in the basement, they would have found the shells in the depository for the upper half of the hotel, which would have expanded their search.

The hotel was still locked down, but Harris could almost taste freedom. He reveled in his own ingenuity.

_Harris, you're an evil genius! Planting the evidence in that room while they were out getting drunk on their honeymoon? That's brilliant! I'm not getting paid enough for this. I deserve a medal, or maybe an honorary college degree. What subject? Sociology? Psychology? Law?_ He laughed at his own jokes.

He turned the television to the Blitzball final. He would enjoy this game infinitely more than the semifinals.

_12:00 P.M._

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now precisely midday. At this time I would like to give the floor to our brilliant young investigator, Lieutenant Robert Dennison. He has prepared a statement concerning the progress of his investigation."

"Thank you, Commissioner. At approximately oh-nine-thirty-four this morning, SWAT teams discovered a contraband rifle matching the description of the weapon used against Sora four days ago. It was found on the eighth floor of the Hotel Regal. The names of the suspects have not been released as of yet."

"No tests have been conducted with the weapon yet. Our Forensics department is currently preparing the weapon for a battery of tests to identify the owner and point of origin. We cannot speculate on either of these questions at this time."

"Two bullets were missing from the foam carrying case found with the rifle. The remaining bullets are of the same kind as the fragments found during Sora's recent surgery. Again, no tests have been conducted, but our resident firearms experts are of one opinion on this matter."

"The suspects are currently in custody under heavy guard at an undisclosed location. Their names will be released at the time of their trial."

"I cannot answer your questions at this moment, as I must return to my investigation. The officers up here with me can field those questions."

_12:14 P.M._

Riku and Kairi sat at a table outside of an Italian restaurant in downtown Comberth Harbor. The striped awning fluttered in the cool sea breeze. It was the only measure of shade for the denizens of the city at midday, and the pair had capitalized on it. They had ordered glasses of water, received them, placed their orders to a young waitress, and hadn't said a word to each other.

Riku wished she would just say something, dammit. It had been an accident; an accident she caused, to be precise. Yet he caught her staring at him with a fire in her eyes that he had never seen before. That was the one thing he disliked about females: they let you stew in their resentment until you thought that everything was your own fault. That was probably the reason he never had any long-term girlfriends at school.

Still, Kairi was very attractive. When the sun glinted off of her shiny red hair just right, he understood how Sora felt whenever she was around. His normally calculating logic melted into a hapless puddle of emotion. Sora's romantic heart didn't stand a chance against her.

When the food arrived, they both politely thanked the waitress and silently began to eat. Kairi occasionally glanced at Riku while he was eating. She couldn't fully disguise her newfound feelings for him, and he occasionally caught her staring at him with a mixture of resentment and desire.

However, he just sat there. That was the one thing she disliked about guys: they always felt they had to mask their feelings, so you never knew what to say to them. She experienced the same thing with Sora, but to a lesser degree.

As much as she tried to concentrate on Sora, she couldn't stop her thoughts from gravitating to Riku. He was older, stronger, and likely smarter than Sora. His silver hair and muscular body had an odd magnetic attraction to them, as if they would ensnare her heart if she let them get too close.

Neither teen could enjoy their food as they sat in their own self-incriminations. As they finished, Riku tipped the waitress a generous 25%. He and Kairi left the restaurant quickly and proceeded back to the hotel.

When they got back to the room, they turned on the TV to the local news channel. They were both instantly drawn in when the anchor described the press conference that had occurred no more than a half an hour ago.

Kairi spoke to Riku for the first time in hours. "They found the gun? That means…"

He picked up her train of thought. "It means we could get Sora back soon."

She felt her heart leap at the prospect of getting her beloved back quickly. For the next few hours, her step had its old spring in it. To her utmost delight, she looked at Riku and saw nothing more than a good friend again. Relieved that her brain was back in working order, she went to a hardware store with Riku to pick up a flashlight and batteries.

They would be talking to Sora tonight.

_1:17 P.M._

Dennison walked onto the isolated viewing platform for the Forensics clean room. His assistant was there with a coffee ready. Dennison accepted it and sipped the hot drink as he watched technicians in white lab coats swarm around the recovered weapon.

"What are they doing now?" he asked his assistant.

"They're lifting fingerprints."

Dennison looked at his wristwatch. "Still? It should only take a half an hour to dust fingerprints."

His assistant took a big gulp of an energy drink. "They're not dusting; they're lifting. The metal is the right shade of black to have our dust blend in perfectly. We can't dust it and get a pressing of the print, either. The metal has a dimpled surface that would distort the print. So they have to do it the high-tech way."

Dennison listened to the in-depth explanation of the technique used to literally "lift" the oil prints off of the metal and on to a specially treated plate, which would then be used for identification. There was still one unanswered question, though.

"When will they be done?"

"I'm sorry?"

Dennison took another sip of coffee. "When will they have the results?"

His assistant tossed his energy drink can into the trash. "Not for at least twelve hours. It's a painstaking process. Weren't you listening?"

"Enough to get the general idea of things, but not the details."

His assistant sighed. Typical.

Dennison finished his coffee and threw out the foam cup. "Call me when the results are in. There isn't much we can do until then."

His assistant put forth an idea. "Should we lift the lockdown now?"

Dennison looked over his shoulder as he walked to the parking lot. "What if those prints don't belong to who we think they do?"

"Oh. They'd be able to get away."

"Wouldn't you?"

_8:51 P.M._

Sora needed to con the mercenaries into giving him a flashlight. He had been thinking all day, but no bright ideas came to him. The power to his room light was controlled externally, so he couldn't use that. He had considered shattering the light bulb with the Keyblade, but the mercenaries would know that he had intentionally destroyed it. They'd just let him sit in the dark.

No, physical violence wouldn't help here. He needed to outthink the Donner Security Consultants. He stared at the dim bulb. The arc of electricity burned with an orange glow that illuminated the whole room.

_Arc._

Of course! It was precisely what would leave no evidence of tampering, yet would force them to provide him with light. He summoned the Keyblade. Placing the tip near the glowing glass orb, he whispered one word.

"Thunder."

A yellow tendril of electricity crawled over the surface of the glass before the filament sputtered and died, showering the bottom of the bulb with droplets of molten metal.

Within minutes, a mercenary was sent with a replacement bulb and a flashlight. When the replacement bulb didn't work either, he gruffly handed Sora the flashlight. "When it runs out of batteries, make sure to tell someone else." He growled.

His triumph fresh in his mind, he waited for nightfall to signal Riku and Kairi. He scanned the hotels outside his barred window. One room on the fifth floor of one of the hotels was alternating between light and dark every two seconds. Sora could just barely make out a figure standing in the window. He couldn't tell if it was Riku or Kairi.

Sora started the same pattern as the hotel room. Soon the light stopped alternating and began a coherent sequence. Sora pulled out his Morse code sheet and read the message.

It was a simple greeting. _How r u?_

He looked at the code sheet to determine his response. _Bored. U?_

_OK. Riku sez hi._

_Hi Riku._

_Anything cool happen 2day?_

The light from the other room paused. Sora was beginning to worry if they had stopped signaling when he got a simple response. _No. U?_

_U hav 2 ask?_

He could tell without a doubt who sent the next message. _Gess wat? LD found da gun 2day. Means I can C U soon. Happy._

Sora hadn't heard this tidbit. He mentally reminded himself to keep the TV on more often. _Wen dat happen?_

_Morning. SWAT found it in Regal._

_No who did it yet?_

_No. Soon._

Sora stifled disappointment at that response. _I miss U._

The other light responded too quickly for Sora to read. He held the light on for three seconds, then turned it off. _Repeat._

_I miss U so much. Riku duz 2._

The muffled sound of the outer door opening caught Sora's attention. He quickly signaled _g2g_ and turned on the TV before the inner door swung open after the metallic squeal of the bar opening. A mercenary accompanied an electrician into Sora's room. The electrician spent fifteen minutes probing the wiring before deciding that the whole bulb wiring system would need to be replaced. The mercenary grumbled, then they both walked out of the room.

Sora began to signal again, hoping that Riku or Kairi was still watching. _They catch me doin dis, I cant do it no more. B careful._

_Don't worry._

Their Morse code conversation continued into the wee hours of the morning. Random things were discussed with excruciating slowness and lack of detail.

They were blissfully unaware that their conversation was being monitored by uninvited eyes…


	5. Stenyr Fleet

Chapter 5: Stenyr Fleet

_July 13, 7:14 A.M._

"Oh, Sora! It's so pretty!"

"I found it yesterday. I thought you'd like it."

Kairi took the necklace from Sora's hand and put it over her head. It was a piece of kite string threaded through a natural hole in an impossibly shiny seashell. Its oblong shape had thick bands of pink and coral orange radiating vertically from the old joint. Kairi caught a whiff on an odd smell and held the shell to her nose. It smelled strongly of lemons.

Sora blushed as she tried it on. "I used the dusting stuff on it, 'cause my mom always uses it to make stuff shiny. And it used to smell like fish." He wrinkled his nose at the memory.

Kairi giggled and hugged him. "It's beautiful, Sora. I'll wear it every single day."

Sora was about to reply when a third voice cut in.

"Aw, they're in looooooove…"

He looked up to see Riku jump down from the dock. "Whatcha doin', Kairi? Givin' Sora big sloppy smooches on the beach? Are you his girlfriend now or something?"

"She's not my girlfriend, stupid! I just gave her a necklace I made!"

"Oh! A diamond necklace? You only give those to your _girlfriend!_"

Sora crossed his arms angrily. "It's a seashell! Where am I gonna get a diamond?"

Riku ignored him, skipping around in a circle and singing, "_Sora's got a girlfriend! Sora's got a girlfriend!_" Sora threw a rock at him. Riku picked up a different rock and threw it at Sora, which hit him on the top of the head. Sora shook off the dull pain and chased after Riku, who had taken off when he saw the rock hit its target.

The two ran all over the island until they could hardly breathe. Sora collapsed a mere ten feet away from Riku, who was supporting most of his weight on a wooden plank that jutted out from the small shack, Kairi, who had been watching the whole chase, walked up the ramp from the beach to the small waterfall. She walked straight past Sora and stood right next to Riku.

"Guess what, Riku?"

Riku could only glance in her direction.

Kairi took the glance as confirmation that he was listening. "I _was_ kissing Sora, and now I wanna kiss _you._ Come here!"

Riku's eyes widened as he saw Kairi leaning over to kiss him. "Ew!" he cried as he attempted to run away. However, his legs gave out after the first stride. Kairi dropped to her knees and puckered her lips. Riku tried to fend her off with his arms, which were sore from pumping so much during the chase.

"Ew! No! Go away, Kairi! No! No! Ew! Aw! Don't kiss me! Aw! Ew! Cooties! _Cooties!_ I haven't gotten my shots yet!" Riku struggled valiantly against his assailant. "I'm gonna turn into a _girl_ if you kiss me!"

Kairi giggled. "Oh, that would be _fun!_ Selphie and us could paint each other's nails, pick flowers together, talk about boys… We'd be best friends!"

Riku's look turned to one of horror. "You talk to Selphie about _boys?!_ Help! Help! I'm surrounded by sickos!"

Kairi awoke, bits of her dream mixing with reality. For a moment, there was a TV on the beach, carpet instead of sand, and the waterfall was pouring bed sheets. Finally, she was fully conscious. She was able to separate memory from the present. She recalled the incident with a small laugh. It was before the Heartless had invaded the island. Before Sora was a hero.

She had been eight years old. Sora had been eight, too, but Riku was nine at the time, and never let Sora forget it. That was about the age they had become true friends and rivals. From then on, they competed in everything: races, swordfights, Blitzball, school. If you could attach a number to it, they battled to get the higher one. Kairi, being female, never understood their obsessive competition.

Kairi wondered if Riku remembered the incident. She began to speak as she rolled over in her bed.

"Hey Riku, do you remember when I-"

She cut herself off. Riku was not in his bed. She looked on either side of her bed, expecting retribution for yesterday's disastrous prank. When he was not there, she checked under both beds. Nothing. He wasn't in the bathroom, either.

Kairi put on her skirt and shirt, panicking. _Don't tell me they got Riku, too! No!_

She ran to the elevator and smacked the call button. She looked above the door to see the number 22 lit up. She took off for the stairs. No way was she waiting for an elevator while her friend might be in danger. She ran down the stairwell two stairs at a time until she reached the ground floor. She burst out the door, almost running into a family of four towing their suitcases to the elevator.

She ran to the front desk. "Have you seen a silver-haired boy leave earlier today? He's about this high," she held her hand flat about six inches above her head, "and you may have seen him on TV. He's Riku. I'm Kairi."

The receptionist calmly listened to Kairi's breathless description of Riku. When Kairi finished, she looked at the clock. "Yes, he left about thirty minutes ago. He told me that there would eventually be a pretty girl with red hair running around looking for him. He told be to tell you that he went to the beach just down Spring Street. I have a map if you need one."

Kairi blushed at Riku's description of her. "No thank you. I'll get a taxi." She walked out of the hotel doors into the humid morning. She hailed a taxi, not wanting to walk the eight blocks to the beach. "Harbor Beach on Spring Street, please. As fast as you can."

The taxi pulled into the early morning traffic. The rush hour hadn't quite started yet, so the streets were mostly clear. The taxi arrived at the beach about five minutes later. Kairi handed the driver his dues plus a fifteen percent gratuity. The driver tipped his beret to her as she exited. She turned to the beach and scanned it for Riku.

She found him standing on a large rock formation that jutted into the harbor. She ran up to him, angry but relieved to find her friend. He offered her his hand to assist her climb. She accepted the help and ascended to his height. When she got a solid footing, she smacked Riku across the face.

He had not expected such a quick outburst from her, and he almost slipped into the water. He rapidly regained his footing, rubbing his right cheek. "What was that for?"

Kairi felt her earlier fear mixing with anger. She was almost in tears. "Don't. You. _Ever._ Leave. Me. Again. At least write a note! I thought you had been kidnapped or worse! If I lose you, I'm stuck on this world with nobody to turn to! Sora can't help me and the police don't care enough to do anything for me. You can't leave me." She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his shirt.

Riku returned the hug, unsure of what to do. Kairi's sobbing had ebbed somewhat, but she was still very unstable at the moment. He sat down, bringing Kairi with him. After a few moments seated, Kairi drew her head back, still sniffling. She wiped a tear from her eye.

"So, what… What were you doing out here?"

Riku pointed west, to the mouth of the harbor. "I heard on the news before you woke up that the Stenyr Fleet was setting sail today. It's the biggest terrestrial naval fleet in the universe. I wanted to see it."

Kairi looked over the bay. There were nearly a hundred warships steaming out of the harbor. Majestic cruisers, small destroyers, and massive, flat-topped aircraft carriers kept perfect formation as they headed out to open sea. There was a rumble of thunder that grew into a deafening roar as a pair of jets screamed over their heads. She stood for a better view. She had always liked ships, even if their purpose was destruction.

Kairi turned to Riku. "Where are they going? Are they at war with someone?"

Riku stood up next to her. "No. The Stenyr Fleet goes on patrol every so often. Three months at sea, then they are relieved for another three months by another fleet. Their home port is here, in Comberth Harbor."

The massive fleet reminded Kairi of one of Sora's exploits.

"_I'm gonna join the Navy and be the captain of a huge battleship!" Sora had said one day as they sat in a boat after school to go to the island._

_Riku had laughed uproariously at the idea. "I can see it now: 'Captain, we're under attack! What do we do? Why are you hiding under the trash can, sir?'"_

_Sora stood to challenge Riku, but instead he unbalanced the small rowboat they were in, capsizing it. Kairi screamed as the boat tipped over, spilling the two thirteen-year-olds and their friend a year their senior. As they resurfaced, Riku spat seawater at Sora._

"_Captain of a battleship, huh?"_

_7:52 A.M._

Sora was watching the news when the buzzer sounded on the outer door. He covered his hears to protect them from the screech of the locking bar. He saw Anton walk into the room clutching a handful of batteries. "Sorry it took so long to get them. I wanted to bring them with your breakfast, but they needed to make sure I wasn't sneaking you a glass cutter or cyanide pills."

Sora reached for the clock on the wall. He removed the cover from the old batteries and handed the dead cells to Anton. Sora picked up two large batteries and put them in place, returning the cover to its original location. He set the clock to 7:52 A.M. and thanked Anton.

As he sat down, he looked at the pile of batteries Anton had given him. Some were the correct size for the clock, but others were nowhere near the same shape. He stopped Anton just before the door opened. "Some of these don't go to the clock," he said. "What should I do with them?"

Anton's face shifted into a small smirk. "I think you can find some use for them." He tapped a specific pattern on the door, which opened to let him through.

Sora pondered the meaning of Anton's words for a moment. Surely there wasn't anything hidden in them. He picked up one of the anomalous batteries, searching every square millimeter for seams or hidden instructions. He twisted the ends; maybe they unscrewed and contained a useful item. When he found nothing, he tossed the cell onto his bed next to his flashlight.

_Of course._

He twisted open the bottom of the flashlight and shook out the batteries. They matched the batteries Anton had left him. So that's what he had meant.

Sora's brief happiness was interrupted by a grim possibility. How did Anton know he'd need extra batteries? His room was well-lit by the window during the day. His mandatory sleep cycle began just after sunset. There was only about thirty minutes a day that he'd absolutely need to use the flashlight for illumination. If Anton knew he was using the flashlight to signal Riku and Kairi, who else knew?

He stashed the extra batteries underneath his mattress. No need to make his inventory obvious.

He returned his attention to the news, dreading the day ahead. That had become routine for him. His only reprieve from his protective shell was his Morse code conversations, and that only worked at night. The day was a vast wasteland of boredom. If he didn't find a way to entertain himself during the long days on this world, he just might lose his mind.

_9:45 A.M._

Dennison read the lab report with a twinge of disappointment. The fingerprint test had been inconclusive; only about five percent of the print had been recovered. That was expected, though. Nobody would go to the trouble of planning an operation of this profile and forget about fingerprints. It would be the most important concern behind killing the target.

Of course, that hadn't gone so well, so who knew what else had been irreparably damaged?

The lieutenant tossed the clipboard onto his desk and walked to his coffeemaker. "I assume this is the most completely recovered print?"

The lab technician nodded. "The specialized metal interfered with the transfer reagent. The others returned less than three percent of the original print. That fragment alone matches eighty thousand people on this world alone. As for other worlds, well, we started running the database search at four this morning and the computer is _still_ turning up results." He shook his head. "We're going to need another identification method."

_No kidding,_ Dennison thought. He filled up a foam cup with coffee and dropped a single sugar cube in it, letting it slowly dissolve. "Is the weapon still in the Forensics clean room?"

The tech replied after consulting a PDA. "Yes. It's being prepped for ballistics tests right now. Would you like to see them?"

"Call them now. Cancel the test. I need to see that rifle. Get me clearance for that room."

"Sir, we need to do these tests. If the rifle is defective, we can isolate the source based on the part and shipment. It's all we've got right now. What could you possible know about it that would give us reason to cancel the test?" The tech's voice was dripping with condescension.

Dennison smiled at the tech in disbelief. "How many firearms have you worked on, son?"

The tech, who was ten years Dennison's senior, answered sharply. "Hundreds. Maybe even thousands."

"And you've never once looked for a serial number?"

The tech was visibly angry at this point. "Not only have we already found the serial number, but we've traced it to a store known to have closed over ten years ago. There's nothing to be gained by having you look at it too, _sir._"

The lieutenant laughed at the tech's assessment of his idea. "You found _a_ serial number. Anyone can stamp metal with a few numbers. But there is some metal that only the manufacturer can stamp. That's where you'll find the _actual_ serial number."

Dennison walked out of his office, followed closely by the angry lab technician. They sat in Dennison's cruiser and drove off towards the Forensics lab. When they stopped at an intersection along the beach, Dennison looked out towards the Navy base. The docks were devoid of their normal bustle. The nearby airfield was almost empty.

He remembered that the Stenyr Fleet had set sail earlier today and smiled to himself. In Comberth Harbor, the day that the fleet left or arrived was said to be lucky. He wasn't particularly superstitious, but maybe the stories would prove themselves today.

He pulled into the parking lot of the Forensics lab. The irritated tech led him to the decontamination room. They donned the requisite white sealed-environment suits and entered the airlock. A mist of undoubtedly toxic chemicals was washed away by a sustained blast of air as the decontamination process was completed.

Dennison and the tech walked to the bench that the rifle was laid on. Two other techs in environment suits were inspecting every inch of the gun as they prepared it for transport to a firing range.

Dennison tapped one of the techs on the shoulder. She spun on her heel, startled.

"Step back, please. I need to do one last 'test' with this here gun."

The tech recognized Dennison from his press release yesterday. She nodded to her partner, who stepped away from the gun. Dennison turned to the female tech.

"I'm gonna need a fiber-optic probe and a good light source."

The tech nodded and opened a nearby drawer. After a few seconds, she extracted a long, thin tube attached to a small screen with a miniature joystick. Dennison accepted the probe. He turned to the second technician.

"Prop the gun up at an angle. Make sure it won't tumble."

While the technician began to set the rifle on a twenty-degree angle, Dennison familiarized himself with the controls of the probe. The small joystick controlled the "camera" end of the probe, and two buttons on either side of the stick turned the whole probe to the left or right.

Once he was sufficiently confident in his probe-handling skills, he returned to the rifle. It had been set at an easy angle to reach with the probe. However, the firing chamber was open and the magazine was sitting on the table next to the trigger. Dennison sighed and returned the rifle to its normal state. He threaded the probe down the length of the barrel.

The irritated tech that had talked to Dennison earlier spat a question at him. "Why are you looking down the barrel that way? You could have gone in from the magazine slot; that would have been much easier. Or you could have left the firing chamber open and looked in from there. Why this?"

The lieutenant pressed a button, and a light on the end of the probe shone, revealing the inside of the gun. "I'm not trying to look at the barrel," he replied, threading the probe to the closed firing chamber, "I'm trying to see the firing pin. To see the firing pin, you have to be able to pull the trigger. To pull the trigger, the chamber must be closed. _That_ is why I am doing this."

He turned his attention to the female tech. "Can you pull the trigger for me?"

She hesitantly placed her finger around the trigger and squeezed. The firing pin popped out with a metallic _click_ made so famous by action movies. That was the click heard when the bad guy tried to shoot the hero, but found he was out of ammunition.

Dennison stared at the tiny screen. The corners of his mouth curled up in a smile. Very small but very clearly visible was a series of tiny numbers next to a small symbol. "Somebody take this down," he said, never looking away from the screen. The female tech picked up a pen and a sheet of paper. "Ready? 9-4-8-2-6-1 dash 0-2-S-R."

The last tech looked over Dennison's shoulder at the screen. "What's that symbol there?" he asked, pointing with his finger. The symbol was a winged capitol J over a four-point star.

The lieutenant's smile grew even bigger as he responded. "That is the lynchpin of this whole investigation at the moment. It is the symbol of Jonas Armories."

_11:07 A.M._

The last ships of the Stenyr Fleet had long since passed over the horizon. Riku and Kairi walked along the city streets, exploring the shopping district. Kairi found some happiness in browsing the stores, so Riku obliged and followed her in. Kairi wasn't a rabid shopper, but she got out to the local department store back on the Destiny Islands every so often.

Riku had never understood the female fascination with shopping. It seemed to him that girls took more pleasure in the act of purchasing than actually using their purchase. Riku only went shopping when he absolutely needed something and couldn't con someone else into getting it for him. It seemed such a menial task to take such enjoyment in.

He shrugged. Girls probably didn't understand the obsession with destruction that most guys had. It wasn't always obvious; any anti-war rally proved that point. But those were usually based on politics and sentiment, not a hatred of destruction. Riku was sure that every guy, every _real_ guy, loved a good no-strings-attached explosion.

He followed Kairi into another clothing store. He paused briefly at the entrance. This store was very upscale; Kairi almost never shopped in places like this. She could find just about anything and everything she wanted in a chain store. This was very un-Kairi of Kairi.

As if she sensed Riku's confusion, Kairi explained her unorthodox actions. "I need to find a new outfit for when Sora's released. I want it to be really special, and there's no place better to find "special" than a place like this." She pulled out a small white skirt and pink sleeveless top. "Think he'll like this?"

Riku tried to imagine Kairi in the outfit. It wasn't a stretch; she wore pink more than any other two colors combined. The white top was common too. The uniforms their school required were a white dress shirt with blue skirts for girls and black slacks for boys. He had seen her in white almost as much as in pink, maybe more.

The top was very tight on Kairi as she stepped out of the changing room. It displayed her upper body perfectly. Riku caught his breath when he saw her smoothing out the wrinkles left from being folded for so long. She was stunningly beautiful. She smiled and spun in a quick circle for him. "What do you think?"

Riku was slow to respond. "Sora's going to be a happy little boy when he sees you in this."

Kairi smiled and blushed. "Thank you!" She certainly knew how to turn guys into jelly. Sora was truly lucky to have been placed on the same world as her. Riku watched her as she closed the door to the changing room again.

In his mind's eye, he could see her putting the top on and checking herself out in the mirror, critically looking for any imperfections. He thought he saw a reverse image of her putting the top on when he realized he was fantasizing her take it off.

_Aw, _hell _no. Not this again._

_9:13 P.M._

Sora watched his friends' room for any activity. They should have been ready to talk over forty-five minutes ago. The light was off in their room. No activity. The door hadn't even been opened since before the sun set. He nervously spun the flashlight around on his table. What had happened to them?

The longer Sora waited, the more he worried. Had they been kidnapped in order to lure him out? He knew he could overpower the guards when the inner door was opened. After that, escape would be a simple matter of unlocking the outer door with the Keyblade and evading the sparse nighttime interior guards. Did someone know that escape would be so easy?

The possibility of a traitor in Donner Security scared him. They could come in at night and kill him with no resistance at all. Or worse, they could force Riku and Kairi to take drastic, even dangerous measures to ensure his safety. A traitor in the ranks was a terrifying concept to behold.

Sora looked back at the window. The light was on in Riku and Kairi's room, but it wasn't flashing. He strained his vision for a closer look. His eyesight had always been better than average, but the hotel was a long way away. As he adjusted to the distance, he saw a figure sitting hunched over on a bed. Just one figure.

It lacked Riku's long hair and muscular body. As Sora squinted for a sharper image, he could see Kairi sitting on her bed, her face in her hands.

In fact, it almost looked like she was crying.

_9:39 P.M._

Kairi sobbed into her hands as she sat on her bed. Riku had walked her back to the hotel with the same silence that had plagued them yesterday. He then mumbled something about a pawn shop and disappeared into the urban night, leaving Kairi alone for the first time since she was in the changing room.

Finally by herself, she let her pent-up emotions rise to the surface and bubble over. _What is happening to me,_ she thought, _why am I so attracted to Riku now? I shouldn't have gone shopping with him today; I shouldn't have shown him myself in that outfit! I should know what Sora likes. I love him. Why did I ask Riku anything?_

_Because you wanted him to look at you that way,_ a voice said in the back of her mind. _You wanted him to look at you with desire._

_But I love Sora, _she replied to herself, _not Riku! He's a good friend, but nothing more! If Sora knew half of what happened, he'd be crushed! Why am I letting this happen?_

_Deny it all you want, Kairi, but you know you want Riku. You want Riku to want you. _

"No! It's not true! _No!_"

She felt herself burning with the deepest anger she had ever felt. She picked up anything she could find and threw it at the walls, cursing the world. Cursing the man who shot Sora. Cursing the King for putting him in his prison. Cursing the Stenyr Fleet for not bringing her luck today. Cursing the lieutenant for not working faster. But most of all, cursing the man who had planned everything.

In her rage, she swore to herself that, come hell or high water, she would personally find the man responsible and make him pay dearly.

_January 15, 8:59 P.M._

_Six months ago._

"Well, you know what? You can tell your lawyers that I work twelve-hour days so that _you_ can sit at home enjoying a _damn_ fine lifestyle in my house with my kid! No! No, I don't think you need more child support money! I pay you sixty percent of my monthly income in those fat alimony checks you get. That is _more _than enough to support Shelby _and_ your lazy ass! You want more money? Get a job like the rest of society!"

Harris slammed the handset back onto the receiver. His ex-wife and her blood-sucking lawyer would call back within the hour. They would find a way to extract more money out of his already piss-poor lifestyle. He turned down the heat on the thermostat and wrapped himself in a blanket. _Better start saving money so I can pay Her Royal Highness her tribute._

His divorce had been drawn out and messy. He had caught her in bed with another man about seven months ago. He had immediately called a divorce lawyer. Some would think this an overreaction, but it was the third time it had happened. She had taken advantage of his good nature for far too long.

However, things immediately went south from there. In court, she claimed that his years as a Special Forces operative and his somewhat excessive drinking had made him "mentally unfit" to be the guardian of their twelve-year-old daughter. She won full custody.

Later, during the alimony hearing, her lawyer discovered that Harris owned almost 5,000,000 Munny in gold shares. They said that the gold, his current job, and his military pension were sufficient income to support the both of them. During the hearing, he lost his job when the company merged into a larger conglomerate. His position simply ceased to exist. Over the months, he had to slowly sell of his gold shares. He got a new job at a bank as a security guard. His military pension went one hundred percent to alimony.

Harris sat on his torn couch, dreading the next phone call. Just as he was drifting off to sleep, the phone rang again. He grunted, got up, and walked to the phone. Expecting to hear the voice of his ex-wife's lawyer, he answered the phone drearily.

"Brian Harris."

An unfamiliar voice answered. "Good, so I have the right number."

Harris cocked his head at the new voice. "Who is this? If you want money, talk to my ex-wife. She took it all."

The voice on the phone laughed heartily. "Yes, so I've heard. I know quite a bit about you, ex-Master Sergeant Brian Harris."

The mention of his former military rank shocked him into a stupor. No one had used it in years. "Who are you?"

"I am someone with the capacity and resources to give you a life you never even dreamed of. I can pay you billions in Munny. I can stop your alimony payments and get you custody of your dear daughter Shelby Harris. Or, as she is known now, Shelby Munick."

The mention of his daughter with his ex-wife's surname heated his blood to a boil. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You were a sniper in the Special Forces on my world. About twelve years ago, you conducted an operation in my city. Saved my life, if I remember correctly. I want to know if your shooting skills are still as sharp as they were." The last sentence had a strange ring to it, as if the man already knew the answer.

Harris almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. The voice knew so much about him. Most of his operations were classified; the information never went public. But this guy obviously had resources. He must have known that Harris had one prized possession left: his custom-made rifle. He had replaced parts for upgrades and switched the serial number should his ex-wife want to have him sell the rifle. With the alternate serial number, the gun was worth a tenth of the actual value; far too little for her to bother with.

"I practice every day. What's it to you?"

The man on the other side paused, then continued quietly.

"I have a job for you…"

A/N: Sorry for the (relatively) slow update; went to a friend's one-year memorial today. RIP Mikey 1994-2008.


	6. Security Tapes

Chapter 6: Security Tapes

_July 13, 10:02 P.M._

Riku was still chastising himself as he walked to his destination. He had gotten to close to her, and it had broken her. There was little outward indication of it, but Riku had known Kairi long enough to know when she needed to be alone. The loss of enthusiasm in her words, the thousand-yard stare, the drooping of her shoulders. He had walked her to the hotel and fabricated an excuse to let her be alone for a while.

He was not on his way to a pawn shop, as he had told Kairi. Not that it mattered. She wouldn't come calling in this state. He felt a pang of regret at his loss of self-control. Sora was supposed to be the impulsive one. That was one of the things Kairi liked about him. Maybe that's what attracted her to Riku recently.

Riku stopped in front of a run-down store with bars in front of the windows. Faded, chipped paint letters spelled GUNS on the sign above the door. The door opened and a man in a flannel shirt and trucker cap walked out. Riku walked to him, his mind planning his speech.

"You closing?"

The man jumped at the sudden voice from behind. He reached for his side; there was a handgun in a holster clipped to his belt. "Don't try anything, buddy. I'm packin'."

"I just want some information before I buy."

The owner of the store turned to face Riku. "Ah, I've seen you before." He smirked at the silver-haired teen. "This little incident with your buddy-pal get you on edge? Well, come on in; I know you're good for your Munny."

Riku entered the store. It was unlike the gun stores on TV. Everything was behind thick glass. There were only display models in the cases. Behind the counter, there were mock-ups of every weapon in the store. The owner walked behind the counter and straightened some of the models. "Well, what can I do ya for?

The response was cool and planned. "I'm looking for a good hunting rifle. What do you recommend?"

The owner pulled down several models. "Depends. What kind of game ya hunting? We talkin' rabbits and foxes or big game?"

Riku supressed a measure of revulsion at his response, knowing the true meaning behind it. "Big game. Definitely big game."

He was handed a mock rifle. "How's that feel? Seven millimeter, semi-automatic, five round magazine. Ideal for deer and elk."

Riku had no idea what any of that meant. He only remembered the description the lieutenant had given him. "It's nice. You got any three-oh-eight?"

The owner looked at him with a puzzled look on his face. "Yeah, but the cartridge is smaller, and the difference in caliber is only point six two millimeter. You'd lose stopping power, and that's not something you want to lose when goin' for big game."

"Don't care. I want a .308, preferably bolt action. Four round magazine." Still no idea what that meant.

The owner, however, became irritated when Riku listed the stats of his preference. "I see what you're trying to do. You think I might have sold the gun that took yer friend outta commission. Well, lemme tell ya something." He leaned over the counter. "I haven't sold a .308 in years. There's no market for 'em. The only buyers left are the military and the police."

Riku's shoulders sagged in disappointment. The store owner continued. "By the way, when you go to waste someone else's time, try to pretend you know what you're talking about. Here's a quick hint: .308 caliber and 7.62 millimeter are the same thing. But if you say 'seven point six-two millimeter', you'll sound a little better." He shelved the model rifles. "Never try to fake gun knowledge to a redneck."

Riku walked out of the store, dejected. Would every gun store owner in the city discover his plans so easily? He'd have to research more. Rehearse his act. Try to sound marginally intelligent around firearms.

_July 14, 1:08 A.M._

Dennison sat in the terminal at the Gummi Hangar. An airport for Gummi Ships, they had spread like the plague after inter-world transportation had been discovered about twelve years ago. The major players were just starting to become dominant, while the smaller companies hadn't yet fallen into the red. Dennison's preferred transport was GummiLiner, one of the smaller companies that emphasized low prices, smaller ships, and good service.

Unfortunately, time was of the essence, so he was forced to take a large, fast ship. The warp function hadn't been perfected for large ships, so it traveled by normal space. Only two large ships had ever succeeded in warping. They had both vaporized on arrival. Dennison wished the police could afford to send him on a private charter, but those tickets cost upwards of six million Munny. He'd have to settle for a relatively speedy normal-space SuperGummi ship.

His flight departed in a little less than an hour. The destination was a world called Colorado Springs. It was famous for a sport called "hockey." Thirty years ago, an underdog team had defeated the obvious favorite in one of the biggest upsets in any sport on any world. It had been called the Miracle on Ice. Dennison didn't see what the big deal was. Then again, he had never particularly enjoyed sports.

The serial number on the rifle led them to a well-known gunsmith on this world. He needed to find the buyer of that rifle, and this store was the only lead they had. He had seen the "suspects" that SWAT had brought in a couple of days ago. They were a terrified young married couple on their honeymoon. He had read the briefing on them with contempt. As if one of them was _really_ the shooter.

The way to find this slippery character was to follow the past, not the present. The appearance of the present could be manipulated to look like anything anybody wanted it to look like. The past, however, was set in stone. No changing the evidence of the past.

A deep subsonic rumble filled the terminal. Dennison looked outside to see a massive Gummi Ship touch down on the tarmac just outside the gate. The swinging walkway coupled with the door and the passengers streamed out. It wouldn't be long before he took his seat and left for another world.

_6:30 A.M._

Sora was awake as Anton delivered his breakfast. Today, it consisted of a stack of five pancakes drenched in syrup with a bowl of melon slices and orange juice. As rare an occurrence as it was, food was not the first thing on Sora's mind that morning. He struck up conversation with Anton.

"Hey Anton, what do you do when your wife is crying?"

Anton didn't miss a beat. "I bring her a big bar of chocolate and leave her the hell alone." He laughed at Sora's horrified expression. "No, really, what I do is just be _with_ her." He set the tray on Sora's table. "I'll sit next to her on the couch, because she's _always_ on the couch when she's crying. She'll cry into my shirt for a bit until she feels better. When her mother died, she cried for nearly thirty hours straight."

Sora felt disappointment stab him through the heart. "Anything else?"

Anton shook his head. "Not usually. There's not much you can do. The female creature is impossible to understand for us guys. We just gotta hope she'll feel better soon."

That was what Sora had feared. He was trapped here in his cell, unable to help a distressed Kairi when she desperately needed him. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life.

Seeing the worry on Sora's face, Anton clapped him on his uninjured shoulder. "I know what you're thinking. You're stuck here in this cell, completely unable to help your girl. I've been there before, trust me. The day I saw my wife for the first time after being put in prison was the second happiest day of my life, right behind the day my daughter was born…" Anton trailed off, embarrassed that he had just revealed a dark part of his own past.

The unique view into Anton's previous life intrigued Sora. He pressed the matter. "You were in jail? What for?"

Anton straightened his back, trying to mask his emotions. "I robbed a convenience store when we were running out of Munny. She was still paying off her student loans and I had to cover our rent. There was little left for food and clothing."

He paused for a second. "I didn't hurt nobody. My gun wasn't even loaded. I took 800,000 Munny from the guy. It wasn't much, but he had set off a silent alarm anyway. The cops were there in two minutes flat. I tried to run, but they caught me anyway. I got two years for it, but I served ten months and got out on parole. That's when Donner found me. They've been good to my family ever since."

Sora listened to Anton's story with the utmost respect. He had risked everything dear to him to support his wife. His courage made Sora's ordeal seem a trifle. Sora had inadvertently made someone angry, and they tried to have him killed. Anton had faced danger willingly. Sora felt a sense of determination rise within him. He would be able to wait to comfort Kairi. He could wait. He knew Kairi could, too.

But for how long?

Anton walked out of the room silently, leaving Sora with his breakfast and a renewed sense of purpose. _Kairi's strong,_ he told himself._ She went a year on the islands while I was in hibernation and Riku was in the dark realm. She can handle a few days away from me. I'm sure of it._

He sat down to his breakfast, finally able to enjoy a meal in his cell. As he ate, he turned the TV on. The news station had a report on the rallying stock market. Charts showing rising stock prices flashed across the screen for a few minutes before the news desk was shown. Sora saw a picture of himself and the words ASSASINATON UPDATE in bold capital letters beneath it. He turned the volume up enough to hear the anchor.

"Police have issued a statement saying that the fingerprints recovered from the metal are insufficient to definitively convict anyone. However, the partial fragments do not match the corresponding area on the prints of the couple arrested two days ago in possession of the weapon. Their attorneys are calling for all charges to be dropped. The Justice Department has declined to comment."

"However, sources report that the police are following up on another lead. They wouldn't specify the nature of the lead, only saying that it was a definitive piece of evidence leading to the shooter. The lead investigator on the case, Lieutenant Robert Dennison, departed early this morning from the Gummi Hangar. No comment was issued by police as to-"

Sora turned the TV off, his old despair rising in him again. This would delay the case by weeks. It might be two months before he was released. He wasn't sure if Kairi could wait that long. Something was obviously troubling her. She told him that she had nearly forgotten about him while Naminè was rebuilding his memories. Was it possible that her "Sora amnesia" was the only thing that had kept her sane? The possibility was deeply troubling.

He resigned himself to his breakfast bleakly. Fighting wave upon wave of Heartless had seemed daunting a year ago. He didn't know how hard it was to just do nothing.

_8:43 A.M._

Kairi awoke slowly; her eyes still red from crying. Her pillow was wet with tears. She only wished last night's dream was as pleasant as the one from the night before. She simply couldn't shake her newfound attraction to Riku. His soft face even started appearing in her dreams. She could do nothing to distract herself.

She slid out of bed to find a small piece of paper where Riku should have been. She rubbed her eyes and read the messy handwriting.

_Got back late, left early. Pawn shop didn't have anything._

_Should be back around ten or so._

_Breakfast is being served till eleven today, so no hurry to get up._

_Riku_

Well, at least he had left a note this time. What was he doing that kept him late and made him leave early? Surely his story about a pawn shop was a lie. What was he protecting her from?

She sighed. Riku usually had a good reason for doing things. He even had a reason for surrendering himself to the darkness. He was trying to look for Kairi. He had always tried to be a hero.

Kairi felt herself blushing at the thought of Riku fighting his way through the darkness to save her. She quickly suppressed the image. He just couldn't stay out of her mind. It was driving her mad; she couldn't think about anything without her thoughts deviating to Riku. She remembered when it was Sora she couldn't stop thinking about.

In the week after his dramatic return from his last adventure, he had utterly fawned over her. It was summer at the time; school had ended mere days ago for the children of the island. He practically made himself her slave. If she wanted something, all she had to do was say it out loud and Sora would search high and low until he found it. It made her feel like the Princess she was to have him waiting on her every desire.

One day, he had brought her Sea-Salt Ice Cream on a whim. That was the day his charming smile and constant energy had seized Kairi's heart. She thought about him constantly that day. She remembered how her distant stare had prompted Sora to ask if she was feeling alright multiple times. She would only smile in answer.

Over the next few months, she thought about him during all of her free time. They were constantly together. Even during school, they were in every class with each other. Kairi had asked if he had leaned on the school administration to fix their schedules. His only response was a mischievous grin.

Then there was the time Riku had thought it would be great fun to spike Sora's drink at a party one Friday night. He had challenged Sora to a drinking contest: whoever could chug a two-liter bottle faster would win. Unbeknownst to Sora, Riku had someone mix pure ethyl alcohol into Sora's bottle.

Sora had won the contest. As soon as he dropped the bottle and stood in triumph, Kairi could tell something was wrong. It almost seemed like Riku had let Sora win. Riku never did that, _especially_ not around a huge crowd like that.

Over the next few minutes, Kairi's suspicions were confirmed when a tipsy Sora had started hitting on her. As immature as he tended to be, he was always a gentleman to her. This was totally out of character. She got his undivided attention by giving her best seductive smile. She then knocked him out with a well-aimed punch to the temple.

Riku, who had been watching Sora intently the whole time, fell over laughing. Everyone in on the joke did the same. She waited over him with crossed arms and a righteous anger in her eyes. She was going to knock Riku out, too, but thought better of it. Instead, she feigned good humor as she got him his favorite drink, which she spiked with the leftover alcohol. Riku awoke the next morning duct taped to a tree. Sora awoke in his bed with a very concerned Kairi sitting next to him.

Kairi giggled to herself at the memory. If you could sucker Sora into a contest, you owned him. He would do anything in the name of victory, which, obviously, included drinking enough alcohol to numb him from head to toe.

Such things were the past, though. Sora was still in his little cell in the Doghouse. She felt a wave of anger and sorrow sweep over her. She remembered that she was not alone in her pain. Naminè missed Roxas as much as Kairi missed Sora.

_7:32 P.M._

_Local time._

"Welcome to the Colorado Springs! We hope you'll enjoy your stay on our picturesque world. Be sure to watch a game of the famous sport of hockey, born right here on Colorado Springs."

The intercom in the Gummi hangar repeated similar messages as Dennison walked through the crowds. There would be a car with a local government representative waiting for him at exit 4-C. He quickened his pace as he checked his watch. The gunsmith would be closing soon.

As he exited into the evening, he saw a plain black car parked along the curb with a man wearing dark sunglasses and a suit standing next to it. He knew that was the car he was supposed to enter.

As he approached, the man in the suit walked up to him and asked for his identification. Dennison flashed his badge and the man opened the passenger side rear door. The lieutenant sat in the back while the other man sat in the front passenger seat. The driver accelerated away from the curb.

Another man sat behind the driver. He shook Dennison's hand as he entered the car. "I'm Commissioner Hewitt. I hear you've got quite a situation there in Comberth Harbor."

Dennison returned the shake firmly. "Yes. We've tracked a serial number found on the firing pin of the rifle to a gunsmith on this world: Jonas Armories. I need a search warrant for their retail location here."

The Commissioner opened a manila folder and produced a sheet of paper with rich engravings on the edges. "Way ahead of you. When your department called me, I had the courts work this up in a jiffy. The folks at Jonas shouldn't give you trouble. They're good people. If they had known what that gun would be used for, they'd have made a citizen's arrest right on the spot."

The car drove for about fifteen minutes. It pulled into the parking lot of a medium-sized brick building. The only distinguishing feature was the winged-J logo of Jonas Armories. The four occupants of the vehicle walked through the glass double doors and into the front office. Dennison approached the receptionist holding his badge and the search warrant.

"My name is Lieutenant Dennison. I'm with Comberth Harbor Metropolitan Police. I have a valid search warrant for your security tapes. Where may I see them?"

The receptionist stared at Dennison and his escorts in shock for a moment, then timidly spoke. "I'll need to call Mr. Jonas."

Within minutes, a tall, thin man wearing a polo shirt and khaki pants walked to the front desk. His attitude towards the four official-looking men was rushed but friendly. "Gentlemen, my name is Howard Jonas, Jr. I own this establishment. Something can I do for you?"

Dennison held his badge and warrant up again. "We have a situation that requires me to have access to your purchase records and security camera footage. Where can I get these materials?"

Jonas beckoned for the quartet to follow him. He led them to a heavy metal door. His key ring jingled as he found the proper key and unlocked the padlock keeping the door shut. Inside, there were rows of filing cabinets. Jonas walked to a computer terminal set into the wall near the door. "You can enter the serial number of a purchase here. It will tell you the day it was sold and to whom it was sold. It will also tell you where to find the security footage for that particular time."

Dennison stood in front of the terminal and typed the serial number into the search bar. The computer searched for a second, then returned one result.

"Okay, serial number 946281-02SR. Footage for that sale is in File 23. Sold to… What's that mean?"

Dennison pointed to the screen. In the column where the name should be, there was only a series of letters and numbers. Jonas stepped to the screen and inspected the transaction record. "Let's see… MIL-JAG-D0441. Huh. That's a military code. It's only used to designate a prearranged sale to a covert military operative. Directive 0441 is the official "no-named sale" code. We've only seen it twice before.

Dennison walked to the filing cabinet labeled 23. He opened it and pulled out the properly labeled VHS tape as Jonas described the rifle.

"The SR-02 series was a hell of a rifle. It was accurate to nearly eight hundred yards with a standard assault rifle bullet. It had the capability to accept a silencer, too. It was popular among military services, especially once travel between worlds became commonplace. The only problem was the size of the magazine was restricted to four rounds to facilitate ease of storage and transportation."

Dennison walked up to the group of men with the tape. Jonas Jr. accepted it and put it into the proper slot near the compute terminal. He pushed a button on the pop-out keyboard and the display changed to a view of the retail counter. Jonas Jr. fast-forwarded to the time indicated on the sale record.

A man in camouflage fatigues waited patiently for the sales clerk to ring up the purchase. Dennison pushed the pause button when the man's face came into good focus. He pointed to the screen, steel in his voice.

"There he is. That's our man."

_January 15, 10:22 P.M._

_Six months ago._

Damn. _Damn._ The word resounded in Harris' mind.

Damn. That was one _hell _of a target.

He had gotten off the phone with the man who called himself the Ringmaster less than fifteen minutes ago. His proposition had been insane, just insane enough to work. Harris was uncertain as to whether or not he could take part in it, though. Killing defenseless targets had been his business for nearly ten years. But a hero like Sora? It seemed too much.

He flopped back onto his couch, mind racing. On one hand, he'd be committing murder. He'd have to cut down the best kid in the universe before the prime of his life. It was a sin for which he'd never get forgiveness. He had the technical skill to make just about any shot. His concern laid in whether or not he could bring himself to pull the trigger.

However, he had the reward to consider. 1.6 billion Munny. He'd have to check the authenticity of the cash; if it was real, he could live out his life in comfort, alimony payments be damned. Which, he remembered, the Ringmaster claimed he could negate.

He also said he could get Harris full custody of Shelby, his daughter. That was the most important part for him. He was able to stay in contact with his daughter through e-mail. She didn't particularly like her mother. She wished she could stay with Daddy, 'cause Mom was such a jerk sometimes. She made her come home at nine thirty on weekends!

Harris' mind swirled with conflicting arguments. He'd have to make a choice soon. He wondered what beef the Ringmaster had with Sora. The job was to take out Sora and _only_ Sora. The other two were not to be physically harmed. Harris' skin crawled with the thought of the psychological harm Sora's death would cause to his two comrades.

All of that aside, he had only six months to plan, should he accept the offer. Trying to plan an assassination in six months was like trying to plan a week-long vacation the day before departure. Things needed to be set up. Contacts must be arranged. Vantage points must be scouted. An escape route must be planned. Most of all, he would have to make sure that the target was in the right place at the right time.

However, the Ringmaster had been confident that everything would be taken care of. He just needed a good shooter to do the dirty work. He even claimed he would be able to force Sora in perfect position for a good shot. How he would manage that, Harris could only speculate.

Harris pulled the blanket over his face. His heart was torn between getting his daughter back and _not_ killing the greatest hero of all time. He could see his daughter elated at the prospect of moving in with her newly-rich father and leaving her tyrannical mother behind. He could also see her locking herself in her room, mourning her idol, not knowing that his assassin was her own father.

The blanket deflected Harris' breath back into his face. He pullet the scratchy fabric down just below his neck. He could feel his heart tipping in favor of getting his daughter back. Mortified at the price he would pay to get her back, he tried to justify killing Sora. He wasn't really needed anymore. The Heartless were fairly contained without him. The Heartless World Destruction Investigation, as useless as it was, would continue without him.

Then the riches started calling to him. 1.6 billion Munny, the Ringmaster had claimed. With that kind of Munny, Harris would be able to retire in luxury and buy himself and his daughter anything they wanted. He could afford a warp-capable Gummi Ship. When they wanted to go somewhere, they'd just go. No delays or security checkpoints at the Gummi hangar. Just instantaneous travel.

He also wanted to stick it to his ex-wife. When he envisioned the look on her face when he arrived to pick up Shelby in a stretch limo, the ex-Special Forces sniper practically giggled with delight.

Munny, revenge, and getting his daughter back. An irresistible trio of incentives. As awful as his task was, he was sure it would be worth it. Besides, someone else would end up with the Keyblade, anyway. It's not like it would just vanish.

Harris picked up his phone and steeled himself for the response he would give. He dialed the number the Ringmaster had given him and waited for the mysterious man to answer. There was a click, then the man's voice filled the earpiece. "Harris?"

"I'm in."

A/N: Just want to thank my reviewers; they're pretty much what keeps me writing at this point. tankkura, Redeeming Endeavor, and Guifi: you're all awesome. Thank you so much for your thoughts.


	7. Well, There's Your Problem

Chapter 7: Well, There's Your Problem

_July 14, 6:12 P.M._

Kairi was awakened from her nap by the sound of the room's door closing. She looked up to see Riku walking in, a disappointed air following him. She wanted to inquire about his activities for the day, but decided against it upon seeing the state of her close friend. He collapsed on the bed with a deep sigh.

Kairi stood up and walked over to Riku, who had his arm over his eyes and was breathing through his mouth from exhaustion. She stroked the top of his head as she sat down next to him.

"Tired?"

Riku let his arm flop down to his side as he responded to Kairi's query. "I must've walked up and down every street in this city. The pawn shops here suck."

Kairi's soft expression hardened into a frown at Riku's lie. "Riku. Why are you lying to me? You didn't go to any pawn shops. Even if you had, you wouldn't have gotten so exhausted going to every single one in the city. Where were you _really_?"

The heat of the day had sapped Riku's strength. He simply couldn't formulate any more lies. "I was looking through all the gun shops in the city." Seeing Kairi's shocked expression, he quickly explained himself. "I thought that if I found the store that sold the gun used against Sora, the investigation would pick up some steam. It's been stalled ever since the fingerprints didn't come out well."

Instead of the angry response Riku had expected, Kairi smiled and stood up. "Aww. That's so sweet, Riku. Sora would be so happy that you're trying to help." She clasped her hands behind her back. "Let's go get some dinner. I'm hungry, and I'm sure you're famished."

Riku sat up with a groan of exertion. "Where did you have in mind?"

Kairi held out her arm to help him up. "I don't know. Somewhere nice. I haven't been to a nice restaurant in ages. What do you think about seafood?"

The mention of seafood perked Riku up a bit. "I haven't had seafood since we left home." He let out a low whistle. "Can you believe we've been here more than a week already?"

"I know. It seems just yesterday that…" She hung her head, remembering the parade.

Riku swung his legs over the edge of the bed and walked to Kairi. "Hey, don't worry about it." He lightly tapped Kairi under the chin with a curled forefinger. "Cheer up. It'll all work out for the best. Now let's go get some dinner. I'll buy."

Kairi lifted her head and smiled. "Okay. I'll go put on something nice." As she walked to the bathroom, she turned back towards Riku. "You should probably put on a suit or something." She giggled as he looked down at his clothes. "You're all dusty and you look like a bum. They'll toss you out a second dressed like that. At least put on a black dress shirt and some slacks. Try to feel pretty."

Riku scowled as Kairi skipped into the bathroom to change. She was always trying to get Sora to wear nice clothes. Riku had been lucky enough to escape her marauding fashion sense until recently, when government representatives from various worlds started contacting them with increased frequency. He used the same counter-argument as Sora, which was a foolish decision. The conversation was always the same.

"Riku, those government people are coming on Wednesday. You should wear something nice."

"What if there's a Heartless attack while we're there? I won't be able to move easily."

"Riku, there hasn't been a Heartless on the Destiny Islands since you left the first time. You'll be fine in a dress shirt and pants."

"But-"

"No 'buts'. Wear something nice."

If Sora was present for the conversation, he would snicker at Riku's lack of success. Kairi had always been somewhat of a mother to the two boys. When she told them to do something in her "mother" tone, they _always_ complied, even if it took a bit of arguing to make it happen. Riku's free spirit was no exception.

Riku looked at his formal wear with derision. Oh well. At least he'd get some good seafood with the deal. He donned the black attire and stood in front of the mirror. He felt as though he was wearing a straightjacket. Everything was so… _tight_. He was used to loose-fitting clothing that was actually _comfortable_.

"You look good," Kairi said as she exited the bathroom. "Formal wear really _suits_ you."

"Oh, ha ha. Suits. _Very_ funny. Someone should follow you around with a drum kit. For your information, this is not a suit. It's just a nice shirt and slacks."

Kairi walked up next to him and looked in the mirror. She was dressed conservatively: a simple black dress that dropped just below her knees was accompanied by a gleaming pearl necklace that Riku didn't even know she had. Her hair had been put up in a tight bun. The neckline on her dress was even with her shoulders, which Riku noted with a hint of disappointment before throwing the thought out of his mind.

She tugged at his arm. "Come on, let's go. I'm hungry."

_8:55 P.M._

_Local time._

Dennison sent an electronic copy of the purchase record and security video to the Forensics department back in Comberth Harbor. He then downloaded the files to his personal jump drive. Jonas Jr. then sent a copy to the local police department as well. Dennison slipped the drive into his coat pocket and headed back out to the car.

"Be sure to update me on this case!" Jonas Jr. shouted after him as he left. _Only if this video provides us with a decent lead,_ Dennison thought. The video was their last clue. If it didn't nail down a suspect, the trail would go cold. SWAT had finished combing the rooms of the Hotel Regal about ten hours ago, recovering only shell casings that had been flushed down a toilet. Any fingerprints or DNA that remained had been washed away. The lieutenant cringed at the thought of rooting around raw sewage.

His car pulled away from the Jonas Armories building and turned towards the Gummi Hangar. Commissioner Hewitt poured himself a glass of bourbon and offered it to Dennison, who politely refused. The Commissioner shrugged and downed the drink himself. He winced at the burn and spoke to Dennison.

"If you need to come back here, all the resources of my force are at your disposal. You need anything, I mean anything, just give me a call. I'll send in the cavalry." He smiled and poured another glass of liquor.

Dennison replied amiably. "I hope I don't need to take you up on that offer, but it's certainly welcome."

The car sped down the highway and took the exit towards the Gummi Hangar. The Commissioner handed Dennison a folder. "This contains your ticket and papers to get you through security without being subject to their humiliation. Your flight leaves at ten o'clock. It's an eleven-hour flight with this ship, and you usually have to wait a half an hour for takeoff clearance. You should arrive in Comberth Harbor Gummi Hangar at 6:30 P.M. local time."

The reprieve from security was a welcome one. Dennison hated being searched almost as much as he hated the smell of vinegar, and he _abhorred_ the smell of vinegar. It smelled like liquid pain.

The car finally pulled up to the curb at the Gummi Hangar. Dennison walked through the glass doors into the large atrium with ticket and baggage counters ringing the edges. As he approached the security station, he handed the Commissioner's papers to the guard. He looked the documents over for a few moments before waving Dennison through a small lane towards the edge of the checkpoint with no scanners.

Dennison walked to his terminal, sat down, and checked his watch. Four minutes. A new record. He kicked back and waited for the Gummi ship to arrive.

_6:48 P.M._

The walls were closing in.

Sora tried to push them back, but it was no use. They continued inward, their progress inexorable. The Keyblade ripped through the drywall, but posed no threat to the concrete underneath. He began to panic. His room became smaller by the second. His bed was caught between the walls. It held for a second, then bowed upwards and snapped with a loud _crack!_ The walls continued.

Sora could touch all of the walls now. His table had been consumed alongside the TV. He scrunched himself together, trying to escape the crushing concrete. He screamed, but no help came. The door had vanished long ago. He continued screaming, a high-pitched metallic cry for help. He closed his mouth, but the screaming continued.

He awoke to his door being opened. A mercenary walked in holding a tray with Sora's dinner on it. The smell of grilled salmon wafted into the room. Sora's heart raced; the memory of his dream was still fresh in his memory.

He gave a half-hearted thanks to the mercenary, who grunted and shut the door loudly as he left. Sora stared into the distance, panting. He was losing his mind. The isolation was driving him insane. He couldn't be here in this cell any longer. He couldn't be away from Kairi any longer. There was no end in sight to this torture. He couldn't fight it. There was no gauge of progress. It was maddening.

Sora sat down to his dinner. As he ate, a rogue thought embedded itself in his mind and wouldn't leave. No matter Sora's attempts to dislodge it, it remained firmly entrenched in his brain. Sora slowly came to accept it.

_I have to escape._

_6:54 P.M._

"I'm sorry, but there's no tables open anymore. We just reserved the last one."

Kairi's shoulders sagged as Riku tried to negotiate a price for one of the tables. He kept raising his offer until the restaurant owner walked into the lobby to see Riku and Kairi standing there, offering five thousand Munny just to be seated. He quickly walked up to the maître d and chastised him for letting a couple of celebrities like Riku and Kairi stand in the lobby without being served.

The owner then turned to Riku and Kairi with a smile. He escorted them to a table near the middle of the room, stealthily removing a "Reserved" sign and placing it in his pocket. He pulled out their chairs for them and apologized for the rude treatment they had received and promised that the man responsible would be reprimanded.

Kairi watched as the short, round man stormed off towards the lobby. As bad as she felt for the unfortunate maître d, she was glad to have a table. She looked around at the restaurant, its frescoed walls lit by soft yellow lights in small ornate chandeliers hanging above each table. It was a truly upscale restaurant. The rich and famous of Comberth Harbor ate here regularly.

In a matter of minutes, a waiter arrived with glasses and an ice-cold pitcher of water. He poured the two teens glasses while they perused the menu. Kairi considered the choices she was presented with, impressed. The stock of fish here was even more expansive than on the Destiny Islands. There were some fish she hadn't even heard of before. She found herself torn between grilled salmon with a lobster tail or crab legs with a bowl of clam chowder. Maybe Riku would be of some help.

"What do you think, Riku?"

Riku was distracted by the menu, but he muttered a slow response. "Well, they don't have surf 'n turf, so I don't think they can call themselves a seafood restaurant."

Kairi sighed. It was a mistake to believe that Riku could have any taste when it came to fancy eating.

"You should try the grilled shrimp with the seaweed salad. It's supposed to be delicious."

Riku grimaced at Kairi's suggestion. "No thanks. Sora told me about that stuff after you made him eat it. He said it was like slimy lettuce."

She rolled her eyes. It was so like Sora for him to exaggerate things he didn't like. "Sora says a lot of things. Two months ago he said there was a ninja in his closet and refused to open it. I had to come over to show him that it was just a poor little trapped bird."

"Yeah, but still… It's seaweed. Is it even safe to eat?"

Kairi giggled. "Would they serve it here if it wasn't safe?"

Riku reluctantly conceded the argument to Kairi as he picked up the wine list. Noting Kairi's disapproving look, he spoke up, not looking away from the list. "The drinking age here is eighteen, and I'm uncomfortable around these people and in these clothes. Now, I gotta find something fairly hard."

Kairi returned to the menu. They'd be taking a taxi back to the hotel tonight.

After a few minutes, another waiter came to take their order. Kairi decided on the salmon and lobster tail. The waiter quickly jotted her order down and turned to Riku, who had a frustrated look on his face.

"And you, sir?"

Riku looked up from his menu and ordered without hesitation. "I'll have the snow crab legs with the grilled shrimp and a seaweed salad."

"Anything to drink, sir?"

"Glass of Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay, please."

Kairi stared at Riku, mouth agape. "You knew exactly what you were going to order, didn't you?"

He allowed a mischievous smile to play across his face. "Before we even left the room."

"You've been playing me the whole time!"

"I have."

"You actually like seaweed salad?"

"I do."

She failed to suppress a smile as she scowled at him. "You're evil, Riku."

"I know."

_7: 45 P.M._

The sergeant loaded one bullet into the contraband rifle as he prepared to fire.

His target was a test dummy seated behind a glass windshield that was identical to the one Sora had sat behind the day he was shot. The sergeant was on a raised platform at exactly the height of the eighth story of the Hotel Regal. The target was exactly one hundred and twenty-five yards away. The whole test was in a roped-off sports field surrounded by police cars and caution tape.

Dennison stood next to the police sharpshooter, wearing hearing protection and his bulletproof vest. The sharpshooter was firing without either of them, opting instead to exactly recreate the shot. He peered down the scope and centered it on the dummy's head, which was perfectly positioned in the exact way Sora had been.

He breathed slowly as he rested his finger on the trigger. When he was ready, he held his breath, fired, and exhaled slowly. There was almost no sound. The silencer on the end of the barrel masked the normally loud report of the rifle. Dennison didn't even hear it through his ear protection.

The sharpshooter ejected the magazine and looked down the scope at his handiwork. He raised an eyebrow at the result. "Check this out, sir." He handed the lieutenant a pair of binoculars. Dennison accepted them and sighted the test dummy. The bullet had gone through the windshield at an oblique angle, deflecting slightly, but just enough to hit the dummy in the left shoulder.

The sergeant looked away from the scope and let out a low whistle. "I sighted him on his head, sir. That shot went low and away. The weird angle on the windshield deflected it some more. There's either something wrong with this rifle or the scope."

Dennison sat on a folding chair in the eight-story high as the sergeant replaced the scope with a brand-new assembly. The sergeant explained his actions.

"This scope has been calibrated on an exact duplicate of this rifle. It's dead on-target. If this shot misses, the rifle is messed up. If it doesn't, the problem is in the scope."

The sharpshooter loaded a second bullet into the rifle. He sighted at the dummy, who was sitting behind a replaced windshield. Dennison didn't bother with hearing protection as the rifle fired with a suppressed cough. He looked at the target with his binoculars.

The bullet had hit the windshield directly perpendicular to the surface, proceeding through with zero deflection. It continued into the dummy's head, destroying it on impact. Rubber and metal bounced off every surface in the target car. The dummy slumped over on the console.

The sergeant handed Dennison the old scope with an expressionless face.

"Well, there's your problem."

_7:57 P.M._

Kairi's assumption that she would be taking a taxi home with a drunken Riku was unfounded. They were walking home amongst a crowd of people in tuxedoes and evening gowns. Kairi assumed there was a formal event somewhere that these people would be attending. She noted Riku's swagger as the crowd acknowledged the two teens with stares and turned heads. He had always been a tad egomaniacal.

The sun was still setting over the mouth of the harbor as they neared their hotel. The stars hadn't quite come out yet, and the top of the sky was still a shade of indigo. The western horizon was painted with beautiful strokes of orange and yellow fading into purple and violet higher in the sky. It reminded her of the evenings she had spent on the island with Sora.

They entered the hotel as a small commotion erupted in the lobby. A middle-aged man began shouting at the receptionist for failing to have their room ready. His family huddled together a few feet away, embarrassed at the conduct of their patriarch. The receptionist calmly told the man that their room would be ready in about a half an hour.

The man wasn't having any of it. He was enraged that he had just gotten off a ten-hour Gummi ship flight and they didn't have his room ready. Riku, his face dark, walked up behind the man and cleared his throat. The angry man whipped around and quickly recoiled, not expecting to be face-to-face with the famous Riku.

Riku stood exactly eye to eye with the man. They both knew, however, that Riku would be the easy winner in any altercation. Riku exploited this fact.

"Come on. Give her a break. So you gotta wait for thirty minutes. Big deal."

The man wasn't backing down that easily. "Stay outta this. It's none of your business." He tightened his hands into fists.

Riku raised his strong hand just enough to be obvious. His hand was open, ready to summon the Keyblade. "There gonna be an issue here?"

The man saw Riku's subtle actions and reluctantly backed down. "Fine. We'll just wait over here…" He mumbled to nobody in particular as he shuffled over to a group of easy chairs in the lobby.

Kairi, who had been observing the whole incident, watched Riku walk back with a sense of admiration. Sora had a similar sense of justice. It was one of his endearing qualities. A quality that Riku obviously shared.

She stopped her mental comparison of Riku and Sora. It could only lead to more of the misery she had been put through over the past few days. They had just eaten a nice dinner in a formal restaurant; a dinner during which she had absolutely no romantic feelings for Riku whatsoever. She wanted to think the worst was over. But she obviously wasn't over him just yet.

They rode the elevator back to their room, both slightly upset for different reasons. They shared the hope that talking to Sora would relieve their tension. They didn't talk to him yesterday, and he was undoubtedly lonely. Even the extremely limited Morse code conversations had to work wonders for his sanity.

They reentered their room and waited for darkness to fall as they changed back into casual clothes. After about an hour, Kairi grabbed the flashlight as Riku turned off the lights. She turned the flashlight on and off in three-second pulses. After about a minute, Sora's small window matched her pattern. She began the conversation.

_How R U?_

The reply was sloppy and slow. _Bad._

Kairi's heart beat faster. _Y?_

_Losing my mind._

She quickly glanced at Riku, whose face was unreadable in the darkness. Unable to glean any information, she signaled her reply. _What's happening?_

_Nitemares. Paranoid. Room closing on me._

_Hang in there._

_Dunno how much longer I can._

Kairi felt her heart reaching out to him in his cell. He was losing his mind in his cage and there was nothing she could do to help. In her distraction, she hardly noticed Riku prying the flashlight from her small hands. He quickly sent a new message.

_Riku now. What's going on now?_

_Bad dreams. Bad news on TV._ There was a slight pause. _Good food, tho._

Kairi smiled at the last comment. Even in his fragile mental state, he had his signature optimism. She felt a wave of relief as she realized Riku didn't share that trait. Good. One more Sora characteristic to hold on to.

Riku continued the conversation, unaware of Kairi's newfound happiness. _Small cell, good food. Who's running that place?_

_My Head of Security is Dylan Maxwell. Jerk._

They chuckled at Sora's terse description. They were unaware that the man monitoring their conversation had been waiting for that exact topic to come up. He wrote the name down and sped off into the evening traffic, ready to report back to his employer.

_February 21, 6:22 P.M._

_Five months ago._

A flush in diamonds was pretty good, but Harris had lost on four of a kind earlier that evening. He pushed four thousand Munny's worth of chips to the center of the table. He hoped he could sell his hand for everything it was worth.

The man opposite him on the repurposed kitchen table raised an eyebrow at the unexpected move. He glanced at his cards and matched the bet. The trap was set. Harris re-raised, putting another four thousand Munny in the pot. His bet was called. Harris and his opponent put their cards down.

The table erupted with laughter Harris' opponent looked at the flush with dismay. Almost ten thousand Munny richer, Harris leaned over the table and scooped his winnings into a big pile, ready to be sorted by value. He was just about to sort the five-hundred Munny chips when his doorbell rang.

One of the men at the table groaned. "Aw, don't tell me that's your crazy ex, Harris."

Normally, Harris hated answering the door for his virulent ex-wife. But today, well, today was different. Today Harris had a plan. He had confidence. He had leverage.

He grinned and stood from the table. "Watch this. Nobody better steal my chips."

He walked to the door and opened it, revealing a slightly attractive woman wearing too much makeup. She had an irritated air about her as she began to speak to Harris.

"Brian, you're supposed to send me my child support money by at least the tenth of the month."

Harris feigned surprise at the insinuated news. "Oh, did I send it late? My humblest apologies. It won't happen again."

His ex-wife became more irritated at his sarcasm. "Dammit, Brian, you have to send me that money. How am I supposed to support my child without child support money? It's not like she doesn't cost anything to care for."

Harris continued with his rehearsed script. "Well, I'm sorry, but all my money goes to food, taxes, and alimony." He looked wistfully off into the distance and sighed. "If only my ex-wife didn't demand so much money…"

The anger was obviously rising as his ex-wife continued. "You have a legal obligation to send me those checks! Do you remember the settlement? You agreed to send me alimony and child support. It's in _legal writing._" She held up the copy of their settlement that she took every time he fell behind on his payment.

Anticipating this move, he took the papers and scrutinized them for a moment. "I see. This is very legal writing right here." He turned the paper around and pointed to a sentence. "You can tell because it uses words like 'jurisdiction' and 'postnuptial' and 'fudge'." Harris looked at the paper in mock confusion, then laughed. "Oh. It says _judge_, not fudge. What was I thinking?" He chuckled to himself.

His ex nearly had steam coming out of her ears at that point. She began screeching at him. "Brian, you'll pay on time or I'll drag you into court again!"

He smiled at the furious woman. "You'll have to start working out if you're gonna do that. You look like you've put on a few pounds."

She couldn't take it anymore. With a grating shriek, she slammed the door in her ex-husband's face and stormed off to the stairwell. Harris turned around to see his poker buddies gawking at him, mouths agape. One of them snapped out of their amazement to speak.

"Damn, man! Where'd that come from?!"

He sat down in his seat again and began to deal the cards, grinning form ear to ear.

"I've got a new friend."


	8. Separation Anxiety

Chapter 8: Separation Anxiety

_July 14, 11:31 P.M._

Sora couldn't fall asleep. His conversation with Riku and Kairi had ended a half an hour ago. Riku had returned control of the conversation to Kairi soon after he had taken it away, claiming that he had visited every pawn shop in the city and was exhausted. Sora continued to send Morse code messages for a few minutes, but Kairi had retired around eleven o'clock. Alone again, Sora lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

His mind was swirling with plans. If he could somehow get out the door without the mercenaries noticing, he could escape the entire complex without much trouble. The door, however, was specially designed to keep people in, even if those people had the Keyblade.

What did those heist films always say? "Every system has a weakness." That was it. Sora would have to find the system's weakness and exploit it. The strength of any security system was in its consistency. That consistency made it predictable. Sora's brain began to piece together a shell of a plan. He would have to find an assumption the system made. That would be the weakness.

But what did the system assume? Sora mentally put together a sequence of events every time the door was opened. There were two mercenaries – one brought him food, the other barred the door behind him. When the mercenary who brought Sora food tapped on the door in a specific sequence, the door opened. The sequence changed every time, though. The only assumption there was that Sora didn't know the sequence.

He discarded the idea. The odds of him guessing the code correctly were astronomical. It was like correctly guessing the code on a combination lock. Something like one in a hundred thousand. Maybe he could escape when he was in the central courtyard. Unlikely. Even during his escort there, he was surrounded by ten heavily armed men with tranquilizers. The top of the courtyard was a latticework of iron bars and steel mesh. It was, for all intents and purposes, impregnable.

Sora continued to methodically examine every aspect of his solitary life. No opportunities presented themselves. The system seemed airtight. He couldn't accept that. No system was airtight. If it was, there'd be nothing to breathe. He'd suffocate.

That was simply out of the question.

_July 15, 7:24 A.M._

Dennison awoke at his desk, his head lying on a stack of papers. He pushed them off to the side and stretched his arms. Slowly remembering the past day, he got a cup of coffee and left his office.

As he walked to the parking lot, his assistant ran and caught up with him, breathlessly explaining the events of the previous night.

"We've been running the video you provided us through facial recognition software. The picture quality is low, so it's going to take awhile. Plus, it's gotta sort through the combined populations of all the known worlds, which is, like, two trillion people or something."

Dennison continued towards his car with a headache. He drank some coffee to clear his mind and rubbed his temple. "What about the faulty scope we found?"

"Forensics is looking at it now. So far, they've determined that two of the lenses in the scope are indeed flawed. They don't know what caused it, though. It's unlikely that it's manufacturer defect. The scope must have been calibrated on the rifle before the shot."

The lieutenant walked out the front door to the parking lot. "Well, we'll have to wait on that. I'm going to get a quick breakfast, then I'm coming back to brief the Commissioner and the head of Homicide on our progress."

He sat down in his car and scratched his unshaven chin stubble. He was still perfectly capable of handling this case, but the lack of progress was irritating. He'd have to wait for a computer to sift through trillions of faces to match the one found on the security footage. That could take days. Even if the shooter was found, he may have escaped in the half-hour it took to lock down the Hotel Regal and fled to some backwater world with a population of fewer than five hundred thousand.

If that wasn't bad enough, he'd have to brief two major leaders in the police force on his progress in about two hours. It was hardly enough time to eat breakfast and shave before he told the two men how little the investigation had progressed. Everything seemed arrayed against him.

He yawned and turned the ignition. His car rumbled to life; he backed out of his parking spot and joined he morning rush hour traffic. It would be a while before he ate.

_8:17 A.M._

Riku walked alongside Kairi to the elevator. The continental breakfast wouldn't be served past nine o'clock, which prompted Kairi to wake Riku at eight every morning. He grumbled and groaned for about five minutes before getting dressed and going downstairs to eat. Once he got there, he was impossible to remove. All the free pastries and fruit were far too tempting to simply let them be.

Today was no exception. Now that he was awake, Riku could hardly wait to see the platters piled high with delicious free food. His favorite was the cherry Danishes. The smooth frosting, the flaky pastry, the sweet fruit center… Absolutely wonderful. The fruit and juice provided would be good complements to Riku's preferred baked good.

As in all hotels, the TV in the dining room was set to the local news channel. The weather report flashed before the screen. A powerful storm was brewing offshore. It would hit an about two days' time. After that, though, the weather would return to beautiful cloudless skies and temperatures around 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

His attention wandered until the news anchor began to talk about the shooting investigation. Everyone in the dining room stopped eating; all heads turned towards the television. A hotel employee turned up the volume so that it was audible to everyone.

"Police investigator Robert Dennison has refused to comment on his investigation directly. However, a spokesman for Metro Police has issued a statement saying that while the fingerprint test was inconclusive, more evidence has been uncovered and they are closing in on the shooter. No further comment was made as to the nature of this evidence. Dennison is expected to deliver a briefing to his superiors in under an hour."

"Meanwhile, Sora is still being held in protective custody at Donner Security Consultants' controlled-access facility in the southern part of the city. His Head of Security, whose identity is unknown, has repeatedly asserted that Sora is safe and happy in his temporary home, despite calls by the public that he be released and allowed to make a public statement."

Riku pounded his fist on the table. "Who does that jerk think he is?"

The eyes of the entire room rested upon him as he sat down in his chair, angrily scowling at the TV. Kairi leaned over towards him and whispered just loud enough to be heard.

"We're not supposed to let anyone know we've been in contact with him!"

Riku replied in a similar whisper. "That jerk Maxwell has him bottled up in that cell of his. We can't just sit around and watch as he slowly loses his mind!"

"What other choice do we have?"

"We could tell them the truth. Tell them that Sora is a prisoner in that place and we've been rendered helpless to do anything about it. The people of this city wouldn't let Donner Security hold him for another minute. They'd be forced to release him."

Kairi allowed her voice to climb to just above a whisper as the morning din returned to the dining room. "Would they believe us? How do we tell them that we know? And even if that worked, what if the killer strikes again when Sora's released?" She looked straight into Riku's eyes. "Do not ask me to witness him getting shot again. Do _not._"

"Then what do you think we should do?"

"Get in contact with the lieutenant and find out where he is on the case. We can tell Sora; it'll give him an idea of how close he is to getting out."

Riku was about to oppose the idea when he realized how simple and easy it would be. "Of course. If he knows how close he is, he can look forward to it. But how do we get in contact with Dennison? There's no way he'll allow us to speak directly with him; he's way too busy."

Kairi opened her mouth to respond, but found she had no ideas. "Oh. That's a problem."

"It sure is."

Riku had no ideas either. They both sat in silence for the remainder of breakfast. He wracked his mind for any way to get in contact with the incredibly busy lieutenant. He'd give almost anything. But when Kairi's mouth slowly curled into a smile, he felt his stomach tie itself in knots.

Kairi looked at him with the smile one only gets after a stroke of genius. "Riku, I have an idea."

He braced himself for the explanation. _Oh no. Her ideas never end well for me._

This one was no exception.

_9:58 A.M._

The man had driven for hours since he had intercepted the name of Sora's Head of Security. He was smugly satisfied with his own ingenuity. His attempts at bribing hospital security guards and doctors had been met with failure and suspicion. The general consensus had been that everyone who needed to know either already knew or would get the name from someone else.

After his failure at the hospital, he had driven around the Doghouse for hours, trying to find any clue as to Sora's location. He had seen the Morse code signals by accident. He was stopped at a red light when he saw a hotel room window flash in a peculiar sequence. He pulled into a curbside parking spot and watched a window on the Doghouse light up in another sequence.

He recognized the flashes as Morse code signals. He looked back at the hotel, read to decipher the next message.

_I miss U so much. Riku duz 2._

He could hardly believe his eyes. Had he really been lucky enough to discover secret transmissions between Sora and his friends? How many other people in the universe had a name like Riku? The only world with names like that was the Destiny Islands. And there was only one Riku on that world.

The next night, he parked in the same general area and waited for another conversation. _Maybe he'll mention the name of his Head of Security. That would be an inviting target._ However, there was no conversation that night. The next night, however, he hit the jackpot.

_My Head of Security is Dylan Maxwell. Jerk._

He wrote the name down on a sheet of loose paper, hardly able to contain his joy. This would be worth at least ten million Munny to Mr. Ringmaster. He sped away from his parking spot towards the eastbound freeway, where he had been for the last eleven hours. It had taken him an hour more to get to his secure phone line the Ringmaster had set up in a small town in the mountains.

He drove up to an abandoned-looking shack on the outskirts of town. Inside, there was a telephone hooked up to a small black box. He picked up the handset and dialed the number the Ringmaster had given him. The phone rung three times before it was picked up.

"Are you hooked up to the scrambler?"

The man inspected the small black box for disconnections. "Yeah, we're good here."

"What have you got for me?"

The man grinned evilly. "You're gonna like this, Mr. Ringmaster. It's the name of Sora's Head of Security."

The Ringmaster was not convinced. "How did you do that? Or, more importantly, how can you be certain he didn't give a false name because he knew you were listening?"

"He and his little friends are using flashlights to send Morse code messages at night. There's no way they suspect that those 'conversations' were being monitored."

The Ringmaster sounded slightly more amiable. "Morse code, eh? They're smart; you gotta give 'em credit for that. Well, I'll pay you ten million for the name. We can move our schedule ahead by forty-eight hours. Here's hoping they don't catch Harris before that."

The man replied in a stone-cold voice. "I've worked with Harris before. He's damn near impossible to find once he's chosen his perch. 'Bout twelve years ago, he took out half a squad before they knew they were being shot at. Harris is a slippery little bastard."

"Let's hope so."

_10:04 A.M._

"Is this your only plan?"

Kairi summoned her Keyblade. "Come on, Riku. Sora would do the same for you."

Riku backed against the wall. "I dunno… this seems a little… _extreme._"

She brandished her Keyblade at him. "What's wrong? Scared of a little girl?"

"Scared of a little girl with a big sword and a locked-up boyfriend she'll do anything to get out, including beat up his best friend!" Riku wasn't whining, but he was firmly opposed to Kairi's latest plan.

Her plot called for Riku to get beat up by Kairi as if she had assaulted him. He would lock her in the bathroom and call the police. They would arrest her and take her to the nearest police station, where she would be able to get in contact with Dennison for an update. Technically, divulging information about an ongoing investigation to a civilian was illegal in Comberth Harbor, but Kairi was sure the lieutenant would make an exception.

"It won't hurt _too_ much," Kairi said, trying to hide a smile, "it'll be just enough to look like I got the jump on you in an argument. The police will believe that you didn't want to hurt me, so you locked me in the bathroom and sealed the lock with the Keyblade. Then I'll get in contact with Dennison from jail."

She saw Riku twitch at the mention of the word _jail_, so she clarified. "They won't put me in the normal holding block. I'll be in the juvenile cells, where I can defend myself from any crazy teenagers."

Riku was still hesitant about the whole plan. "Yeah, but that still leaves me with the problem of getting beat up. It just… well…"

"Hurts?"

"Yeah. It hurts. A lot."

Kairi giggled at Riku's bout of irrational fear. "You big sissy. You've taken on the biggest villains the universe has known and you're afraid of me." She turned her head and stuck up her nose. "Sora let me beat _him_ up once."

Riku's head snapped to meet her glancing eyes. "He did?"

She came up with a quick lie. "Yeah. I caught him pretending to flirt with Selphie. I said it was over; he said he'd do anything to keep me. So I beat him up. Right on the spot." She punched the bed for emphasis. "He didn't even complain."

Riku took the bait. "Fine. If he can do it, I'll just have to beat him. Go for it." He stood away from the wall, squeezing his eyes closed.

Kairi's first blow was a broadside from her Keyblade that sent Riku stumbling onto his bed. Before he could recover, she put the sharp point of her blade to his forehead and lightly drew across it. A small line of blood trickled from the wound. He didn't flinch as she knocked him on the back of the head with the hand guard.

The beating continued for five minutes before Kairi took a deep breath and admired her handiwork. Riku was bruised and battered, but not to an extent that made it obvious he had let her win. She dismissed her Keyblade and declared her work finished.

Riku, however, had other plans. He summoned his own Keyblade and grasped the tip as he pushed with his wrist. When he pulled his fingers back, the Keyblade snapped forward and hit Kairi on the arm with the broadside, bruising her pale skin. She yelped at the unexpected blow. "Hey!"

Riku grinned and brandished the Keyblade at her. "That's for taking so much pleasure in it. Plus, now it looks like I fought back a bit."

Kairi's sudden anger turned to reluctant acceptance as she moved forward with her plan. "Okay. Now we gotta make it look and sound like there was a fight."

The two teens ran, jumped, and stomped all over their room, knocking over a vase and running into the bed before Riku finally locked Kairi in the bathroom, sealing the lock with the Way to the Dawn. He calmly walked to the telephone and dialed the emergency number.

"This is Riku calling to report a – Yes, it's really me. No. No, it's not a prank call. I'm calling to report a domestic violence case. Kairi attacked me after an argument – Yes! Yes, I'm telling the truth! I've sealed her in the bathroom of my hotel room. No, don't even suggest that, 'cause it's not true. I just need you to send a car here. Thank you. Yes. Thanks." He hung up the phone. "For nothing," he mumbled under his breath.

He walked to the door and knocked. "Kairi? You stuck in there?"

"Yeah. You've sealed it, alright. Are the cops coming?"

"I think so. The operator seemed to think it was a prank call. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess." He sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing."

In five minutes, the sound of a police siren could be heard outside the window. A few moments later, there was a knock at the door. "This is the police. Open up."

Riku opened the door for the two officers, who were surprised to see that this was no prank call. He pointed to the bathroom door. "She's in there, angry as I've ever seen her. Who knows; maybe it's separation anxiety. I've sealed the door, so stand back." He summoned the Way to the Dawn and unlocked the door with a beam of scintillating light.

The officers opened the door, pistols drawn. Kairi held her hands up as one of the officers went to arrest her. As she was read her rights, Riku quietly spoke with the second officer.

"Let's take her out the back door, huh?"

The officer seemed taken aback at Riku's suggestion. "It's standard procedure to take her out the front door. Why should I listen to you?"

Riku's voice was like ice. "Because should the media get a whiff of this, it would be very _unfortunate_ for those responsible."

The officer seemed likely to call Riku's bluff when the other cop came out of the bathroom with Kairi in handcuffs. "Where to, boss?"

"Bring her to the back door. I'll bring the cruiser around."

"What for?"

The officer became exasperated with the rookie. "Just _do what you're told_ for _once_ in your _life!_"

As the rookie cop escorted Kairi down the hall, the senior officer turned to Riku. "You need me to call an ambulance? You look pretty beat up."

Riku bristled at the comment. "I'm just fine, thanks. I'll just go to the station with you. Unless that's against protocol or something."

_11:15 A.M._

Dennison was on a treadmill after having just given his briefing to the two senior police officials. If coffee wasn't working, he ran to alleviate headaches. It helped to relieve stress, which was the cause of his headaches. The simple rhythm, the physical exertion, the clear objective; all helped clear his mind and calm his nerves. It was a ritual sacrifice of physical energy for which he received mental endurance.

His run was interrupted by his bumbling assistant, who came running up to him with a brand new case file. The case file on the Sora assassination attempt was battered and dirty from being handled so much. This one was a smooth manila folder.

"Domestic violence, lieutenant."

Dennison exhaled to control his frustration. His assistant wasn't the brightest officer in the force, but this was a new low. "You know damn well I'm up to my ears in work. What the hell are you doing bringing me more work?"

The dimwitted cop opened the file with excitement. "Look at the names, sir." Dennison obliged. His eyes bulged as he read the report. "Kairi beat up Riku in their hotel room?! What the hell is going on now?" He looked at his assistant with a raised eyebrow. "Were they…?"

His assistant shook his head. "Both of them deny it. It looks like they just really got into their argument and she got the jump on him. Pretty normal, boss."

Dennison handed the folder back to his assistant and headed for the fitness room door. "It's never normal with this group. I'll have to find out what's happening for myself."

He reached Juvenile Holding and went to Kairi's cell, where she sat in a corner, swinging her legs beneath the fiberglass bench attached to the wall, looking around for nothing in particular. The entire cell was an off-yellow. Her blue shirt and white shorts were a stark contrast to the jaundiced walls and floor. Dennison punched a code into the keypad next to the thick glass door, which slid open with a whirring of electric motors. Kairi looked up at him and smiled.

He stood just inside the cell door, which closed automatically after a few seconds. He eyed Kairi suspiciously before beginning his questions.

"What's going on?"

Kairi looked up at him innocently. "Well, Riku said he wanted to break Sora out of the Doghouse, and I said it was too dangerous. He said he wouldn't let me get in his way. I knew he was telling the truth, so I attacked him. It was in his best interest." She tried her best to look pathetic.

Dennison knew it couldn't be that simple. Not with these two. "That's not it. What _really_ happened?"

Kairi dropped her act and looked around the room. "Are there any, like, cameras or microphones in here?"

"No…"

She straightened her back and looked the lieutenant straight in the eye. "Riku deliberately let me beat him up so it would look like a domestic violence case. We ran around and knocked stuff over in our hotel room to make it look like there was a fight. The police arrived and took me away. Now I'm here, in this cell, talking to a sweaty, stinky police officer, which was the plan all along."

"You did all that to talk to me?"

"Yes."

Dennison nodded his head once. "That's more like it. But why the hell do you want to talk to me? I can't help you with anything; I'm swamped with Sora's case. Remember? He was shot."

She stood up and smoothed the wrinkles out of her top. "That's what I wanted to talk about. I need to know how close you are to finishing up. We want to tell Sora so he has something concrete to look forward to."

"Well, I can't really tell you anything. It's against police department policy."

Kairi looked up at him and pouted. "Please? Just once? For me?"

Dennison sighed, knowing he'd later regret his actions. "Fine. Listen closely."

_8:53 P.M._

Kairi walked out of the police station with a light heart. The information the lieutenant had provided her with would put a smile on Sora's face, she just knew it. That thought alone kept her happy after the hours of attempting to convince the police that the whole thing was a setup. They had claimed that the lieutenant didn't give Kairi any information at all.

After nearly nine hours, they brought Kairi and Riku in front of a circuit court judge and made them swear that there was no actual crime committed; that Riku had let Kairi attack him with full knowledge of the consequences. She laughed quietly at the minimal amount of noise that was raised about her release. If it were any other two people in the city, the attacker would sit in the cell overnight. The lieutenant had been right. People didn't care what you did when something precious was on the line.

She was driven back to her hotel by an undercover policeman in an unmarked car. She reached the fifth floor and skipped back to her room. Riku was sitting on his bed, his wounds bandaged. He had the flashlight in his hands as he turned to Kairi.

"What did you find out?"

"They've got a video of the guy buying the rifle that shot Sora. They're running the face through facial recognition software, but it's going to take a while. Once they find the name, they'll track him down and arrest him."

Riku looked away in disgust. "Arrest is too good for whoever did this. I should skewer him where he stands."

Kairi snatched the flashlight away from him. "The best vengeance is justice, Riku. The law is fair. He'll get the punishment he deserves."

"He deserves to be skewered!"

She turned the lights off. "We'll leave that up to the judge."

_July 16, 1:10 A.M._

The truck was waved through the security checkpoint outside the Doghouse by the mercenary on duty. The driver had been instructed to take the shipment to the North Wing Subterranean Storage Depot. He gunned the diesel engine and approached the ramp.

When he arrived at the ramp, another mercenary stopped him and signaled for him to roll the window down. He complied and leaned out to speak.

"Is this shipment number 456-88B?"

"It is. Here's the paperwork. I was instructed to bring it to the North Wing depot. Is this the right place?"

The mercenary accepted the paperwork from the trucker and checked it against his schedule of deliveries. "Yeah, you're good. Take it down the ramp and go to the far end of the warehouse. The guy with the forklift'll unload it for you. Then just head back out this way and I'll clear you for exit."

The trucker slowly drove his semi down the ramp and into the cavernous warehouse under the Doghouse. He approached the far wall and stopped. A man drove up next to him with a forklift.

"This the shipment of barrels I'm supposed t'be unloadin'?"

The trucker turned off the engine and stepped out of the cab. "I think so. They never tell me what's inside of these things anymore. Some new local law from where my company's based. Trucker can't know what he's shippin'." He spat in anger. "Damn politicians. Everyone's tryin' to cover their ass."

The forklift driver unlocked the rear doors of the trailer and began to unload the pallets of tied-together barrels. "Cold night for July, eh?"

Even with his insulated vest, the trucker began to shiver. "Yeah. Unseasonable. Don't like it."

When the last of the barrels were unloaded, the forklift driver inspected one of the barrels. "Am… ammon… ammonium… ammonium nitrate? What t'hell is that?"

The trucker responded through chattering teeth. "F-f-fertilizer."

"This one's labeled 'Diesel Fuel'. Why we gettin' diesel fuel in barrels? We got our own pumpin' station just around the way. And who sends diesel fuel and fertilizer in the same…"

A terrible thought dawned on him. He reached to his belt for the radio, but never made it. Two shots rang out in the warehouse, its enourmous size swallowing the sound whole. Two shell casings skittered across the concrete floor, each one bouncing with a metallic _ting_.

The trucker concealed his handgun behind his vest. Nobody had heard the shots. The mercenary at the top of the ramp was in his little building, talking on the phone. Good. Only one man would have to be dealt with today.

He loaded the forklift driver's body into the back of his truck and closed the giant doors, locking them securely. He then returned to his cab and pulled out a black box and a roll of duct tape. He walked to the farthest pallet of barrels and taped the box to one of the barrels, concealing it. With a flick of switch, a small red LED was activated, blinking once every second.

Satisfied with his handiwork, the trucker returned to the cab and swung his enormous semi around in the warehouse's central lane. He drove to the checkpoint at the ramp, where the mercenary radioed the front gate to allow him to leave. He gunned the engine and disappeared into the night.

A/N: Changed name to The Price of Safety because I think the mention of bullets might be scaring some people off. Please share your thoughts!


	9. In Memory of Memory

Chapter 9: In Memory of Memory

_May 29, 10:16 A.M._

_Three years ago._

Kairi walked into the Secret Place, ducking her head to avoid the rocky ceiling. She still faintly remembered a time when she could enter without any problems. Those times were long gone, though. Her friends were missing, she had only recently regained her own heart, and her world had been reborn from darkness only moments earlier. If she hadn't been in such a euphoric state from finally being home, she would have been an emotional wreck. The events of the past while were absolutely draining. A weak-hearted person would have been lost to the darkness ages ago.

She looked at the drawings on the cavern walls, reliving the memories associated with each one. That one had been drawn after Sora's first swordfight victory over Riku. The one on the weirdly-shaped rock over there was a picture of the monster they had thought inhabited this place. The big one near the root was the first one drawn after they had discovered this place.

She walked around the damp chamber, remembering all the good times spent on the island with her friends. When she reached the portraits Sora and Kairi had drawn of each other, she dropped to her knees and reached out towards it, her arm trembling.

In between the pictures of the two young teens, Sora had drawn himself offering a Paopu fruit to Kairi. He probably didn't even intend for Kairi to see it. He had drawn it on an impulse; his feelings had been thinking for him. He had "won" the privilege of sharing a Paopu fruit with her the day before. It had gone to his head.

None of these thoughts were going through Kairi's mind as she gently touched the drawing. Tears of joy and sorrow fell down her cheeks. He had braved the greatest darkness in the universe for her. He had stared death in the face – and won – for her. Sora had fought his way across the universe, straight to the End of the World, to save her. And now she was safe on the islands and he was nowhere to be seen.

She didn't know what to do. Tears streamed down her face as she laughed at the simple innocence of it. She picked up a nearby rock and began to scratch another drawing into the rock. When she finally set the rock down, her portrait was offering a Paopu fruit back to Sora. It was a poor substitute for the real thing, but she was too overcome with emotion to care.

In the years that followed, she had difficulty describing that moment. The best parallel she could think of was finding a beautiful poem written about you by a deceased friend. The beauty and love in the words filled you with a warm feeling; the feeling you got when you knew someone loved you more deeply than simple language could describe.

But then you remembered that they were gone, never to be seen again. The poem was no longer a collection of words put together in meter. They were a final memory of a loved one, to be cherished forever. It filled you with the most painful sorrow a mind could feel.

The mixture of the polar opposites, love and anguish, created a whole new feeling. It was debilitating. The outside world ceased to exist. You were swept away by this new emotion, laughing in mirth and wallowing in grief.

Kairi experienced this emotion many times over the next year as she slowly came to the conclusion that if Sora wasn't dead, he was trapped in the Dark Realm with no hope of escape. She had withdrawn into her emotions until her memory of Sora began to fade as Naminé took apart the memories in Sora's heart. By the time she remembered him again, the emotion had subsided to a degree that was tolerable. That was the first day she had returned to the island in months.

_July 16, 5:03 A.M._

Now, as then, the past was long gone. A new threat had emerged, one that seemed so small, so insignificant, yet had the potential to tear the tightly-knit group of friends apart forever. Kairi felt her old emotions rising to the top again. But now she could look out of her hotel room window and see the prison cell to which Sora had been confined.

This time, however, there was a new variable. Kairi's heart was weakened by the events of the past week and a half. Her newfound feelings for Riku were threatening to destroy everything that Sora had worked for. She couldn't fight a two-front war like this. It was hopeless. She would keep giving ground until she had to make a painful and destructive choice: would she succumb to her attraction to Riku or would she resist it and risk the utter destruction of her own heart?

Kairi awoke to these thoughts early that morning. The eastern horizon was not yet light and the morning stars shone brightly in the black sky. She slid out of bed and walked to the window, staring at the stars. A sudden sound behind her caused her to whip around, ready to face a dangerous intruder.

She relaxed as she saw the sound was caused by Riku tossing in his sleep, which had knocked the comforter off of his bed. It had fallen to the ground with a quiet ruffling. Satisfied that she was in danger, she returned to the window, accidentally stepping on one of her pairs of shorts. It made an unusual crinkling noise as her foot pressed down on it.

She looked at the article of clothing with confusion. She bent over to examine the pockets for unusual items. In one of the pockets, she found a piece of folded notebook paper. As she unfolded it, recognition dawned over her. It was the drawing of her and Sora on the island that he had received during the parade. It had drops of his blood staining the white paper, smudging some of the beautiful artwork.

She sat on the foot of her bed, staring at the paper until sunrise. How could she let herself become so vulnerable? How had she let Riku get so close? He obviously didn't mean to cause her so much pain, but it hurt all the same. She couldn't understand what was happening to her. She looked over at Riku's sleeping form, his chest peacefully rising and falling with each breath. It would be a challenge living with herself for the next few days.

_6:30 A.M._

Sora didn't move his hands to shield his ears from the sound of the inner door being opened. He didn't have the strength. Even with Kairi's news of progress on the investigation, he felt himself falling into a detached stupor. His solitary confinement was choking the life out of his spirit. If he had been able to summon the energy, he would have cursed Dylan Maxwell, Donner Security Consultants, and the King, but he couldn't. He only stared at the wall with unfocused eyes as Anton brought him his breakfast.

Anton had been trained as a field medic, and his experience told him the stare was a symptom of shock. However, his logic told him that if Sora was going to go into shock, he would have done it days ago. He set down the tray of food and knelt next to Sora's bed, trying to bring him back to reality.

"Sora! Sora, can you hear me?" He waved his hand in front of Sora's face. His spiky hair was rustled by the movement of air, but his eyes remained unfocused and detached. Anton reached for his radio.

"Hey, I need a doctor in Sora's room!"

The radio fizzled a bit before someone's voice came through the tiny speaker. "What? What's going on, Anton?"

"Sora's completely nonresponsive. He's got a stare indicative of shock, but that doesn't seem likely. We need a doctor here, fast."

There was no delay this time. They were taking no chances with their most important charge ever. "Help is on the way. Hold tight."

Sora heard the exchange, but lacked the energy to respond to it. Within minutes, a doctor had arrived at his room, accompanied by three more mercenaries pushing carts laden with everything from adrenaline syringes to antidotes to environment suits. The doctor conducted the most comprehensive checkup possible before standing to face Anton.

"Well, I can't find a thing wrong with him. He's in perfectly good health as far as I can tell. He's just completely nonresponsive. The only hints of consciousness I have are his pulse and his eyes blinking. Other than that, he may as well be dead."

Anton looked at Sora with fatherly concern. "But he's not, right?"

The doctor removed his stethoscope and placed it on a cart. "Right. It's almost like he's in a coma, yet he's conscious at the same time. I've never seen anything like it. We'll pump him with some adrenaline; see if that brings him around. Other than that, though…" His voice trailed off into silence.

A mercenary took a syringe of adrenaline from the cart, but the doctor stopped him. "We'll see how he does for the next hour. If he's still nonresponsive, we'll give him something."

Sora was laid on his back. The mercenaries and the doctor stood at the foot of his bed, discussing potential ailments and their corresponding treatments. Many of the diseases mentioned were unfamiliar to Sora, who continued to stare into the distance. These new developments were still part of the system. There must be a flaw somewhere. Maybe it was here.

Sora mentally reviewed the contents of the cart. There were syringes full of liquid, bottles of pills, extra blankets, bags of ice, full-body padded suits, environment suits, IV bags, clipboards…

_Environment suits._

Sora thought about the light-blue airtight suits. If he stole one, he'd be unrecognizable; save for someone looking directly at his face. Security cameras would be fooled, people would stay away from him, and only the most alert guards would pose any questions. It was his ticket out. It was perfect.

Now all he needed was the ability to stand up.

_7:44 A.M._

Harris was tired of sitting in this hotel room. He had been here for ten days now. Everyone was on pins and needles by now, so the cafeteria was filled with a silent tension during every meal, only broken by two people getting in an agitated argument every so often. His main source of entertainment was listening to rumors of failed escape attempts. Every person who had tried to escape had been caught and taken into police custody.

That gave Harris some consolation. Everyone who tried to get past the police lockdown was another prime suspect to distract attention from the Special Forces sniper shacked up on the eighth floor. The guest list provided to the police must not have been read very carefully.

The only thing that kept him from trying to climb to the street some night was the thought of getting his daughter back. If he tried to escape now, he'd be on the lam forever. Sure, he'd get the satisfaction of knowing his ex-wife would have to get a job, but what good was that in prison?

He looked out his window down 37th Street, wishing the shot hadn't gone off target. If it had just flown true, he could have packed his bag and left long before the police could set up a quarantine of the hotel. He'd be on a tropical island by now, probably finalizing the sale of a huge mansion on the beach. Shelby would have her own _floor_. He smiled at the thought of his daughter's joyful face when she saw the paradise in which she'd be living.

But then, just as every other time he had wished that, he wondered if he could have lived with the guilt of killing the great Sora. Maybe it was all for the best that the shot had gone wide. He wasn't in jail, Sora was alive, and there was a considerable sum of money in his accounts. All things considered, maybe this was the better course.

Harris flopped onto his bed, frustrated at the situation he was stuck in. He found himself wishing there was a magical liquid to erase bad feelings.

Oh, wait.

He trudged to his mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle of liquor, smiling to himself. This was 120-proof magic. So what if it wasn't even eight in the morning? He adopted a French accent as he opened the bottle.

"_Oho, Captain Bourbon. Ve meet again. But zis time, _I_ shall be ze veector."_

He took a swig directly from the bottle. It burned his throat all the way down, but he liked the taste. After fifteen minutes, he capped the bottle again, feeling much better about himself. This wasn't such a big deal. He'd just get out… later. Yeah. Sooner was better, of course, but later was likelier. More likely? More likelier? Ugh. He hated English, ever since Mrs. Perry in fourth grade. Oh my _gawd._ He _hated _her.

Harris flopped on his bed again, his head pleasantly buzzing. He was asleep in five minutes.

_10:25 A.M._

Sora felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins. The artificial hormone set him on fire as he lay in his bed, unmoving. It was incredibly difficult to maintain his façade of sickness with his newfound reserves of energy. Not only did the adrenaline give him a sensation of power unlike any other, the possibility of escape loomed just ahead. He could see it. He could smell it. He could almost touch it; almost taste it.

His whole plan would be for naught if the doctor didn't quarantine this room, though. He needed to appear sick enough to prompt the doctor to panic and order environment suits for everyone. When that happened, he'd fight his way through the guards and stow their unconscious bodies in his room. A bit of poetic justice went a long way. Once he had knocked out all the guards, he'd get as far as he could without raising suspicion.

When he felt the clean suit would help him no more, he would ditch it and stealthily make his way to the outer fence, which shouldn't be much of an obstacle to him. Then he could surprise Kairi and Riku by showing up at their hotel window. The climb up would be strenuous and dangerous, but it would _totally_ be worth it. All he needed to do was jump from windowsill to windowsill.

The doctor came back into the room with another syringe. He injected the clear liquid into Sora's arm after removing the air bubbles from the needle. Sora waited for a few seconds, then stirred slightly. One of the mercenaries saw his movement and ran to his side.

Sora feigned disorientation. "Riku? What are you doing here? You can't be here," he mumbled weakly. The doctor propped him up against the headboard with another pillow. "I'm not Riku. You've been unresponsive for the last few hours. Do you know where you are?"

Sora's eyes were half open during his response. "I'm in a hospital… I was in a parade, but then…" He groaned and his head lolled down, asleep. Anton, who had entered recently, tapped the doctor on the shoulder.

"Could this be African Sleeping Sickness? It matches the symptoms so far."

"Don't think so. He hasn't been to a rainforest recently. I've seen his travel dossier. The only tropical place he's been is the Destiny Islands, and there hasn't been a case of sleeping sickness there in forty years. It's out."

Anton pressed his case. "His girlfriend recently returned from the Deep Jungle. Most of that world's covered in rainforest, save for a couple of cities. It's not too rare to have cases of sleeping sickness there." He paused for emphasis. "Without treatment, it's got a one hundred percent fatality rate. We need to get him some treatment, and fast."

The doctor slowly considered the possibility. "We'll have to send a blood sample to an off-world testing site. We simply don't have the equipment to test him here. The results won't show up for another forty-eight hours. Besides, sleeping sickness is transmitted via bodily fluid. How would they-"

The two men slowly looked at Sora, then back at each other. They were thinking the same thing.

"Oh, hell."

_12:12 P.M._

Lunch had gone smoothly for Kairi. She and Riku had gotten cheeseburgers and eaten on the beach. The ocean seemed so inviting once she was finished eating, but she had to resist. She'd cramp up if she went swimming so soon after eating. Instead, Riku had offered to go to a movie for a while. There were some new releases Kairi had been looking forward to, so she readily accepted.

They had walked to the theater, which was fairly empty for a Saturday. When they got to the ticket booth, they had a brief argument as to what movie they'd see. Riku wanted to see the big summer action release; Kairi wanted to see a new comedy. They compromised by picking a war flick with a romance side story. The cashier, who had witnessed the whole spectacle, stared at them with her mouth open. Riku's voice snapped her out of her trance. Kairi wondered why their argument had commanded such an odd look.

_Oh. She thinks we're on a date. Oh, no! The gossip magazines are gonna get a hold of this! It'll be disastrous! What'll Sora think?_

The two teens walked to the proper theater and took a pair of seats near the top. The previews had just begun. Kairi's brief lightheartedness at their good timing was interrupted when the movie started. She had promised to see this movie with Sora. It was a month and a half ago. They had gone to see a romantic comedy when the preview played. Kairi could see how enthralled Sora was with it, so she promised to see it with him once it came out. Luckily enough, it came out the day after she returned from her trip to the Deep Jungle.

Unfortunately, Sora had been too busy that day. She was going to take him during the evening of the next day, but those plans were interrupted by a bullet to the shoulder. She had seen him twice since then, both times in less than forty-eight hours.

The knowledge that she should have seen this movie with Sora reopened her wounds. Being in the theater with Riku served to pack them with salt. Nothing good had come of the past few days.

The movie began with a group of muddy GIs running from one bombed-out building to another. Gunshots could be heard all around, and an enemy tank rolled by their position. Occasionally, an explosion rocked the ground and sent geysers of dirt and mud shooting out of the ground. One soldier shouldered a bazooka and fired at the tank, which was consumed in flames.

There was another explosion, and the screen turned white. A sepia-tone flashback settled in, showing the main character's tearful departure from his girlfriend. They embraced each other as they were enveloped in steam from an old-fashioned locomotive. He boarded the train and found a compartment on the same side of the tracks as his girlfriend. As the train departed, he leaned out the window for a last look at his beloved.

Kairi uncomfortably watched the movie unfold. The main character was stranded behind enemy lines. Occasionally, there would be another sepia-tone flashback to his life before the war. Kairi looked away during every kiss shared onscreen. It made her think of Sora, who was fighting his own fight in the Doghouse. But his fight was not against a clearly defined enemy. The only known enemy was still hiding in the shadows, avoiding the police at every turn.

When the movie finally ended, the lights came up and brought Riku into sight. She again felt an inexplicable attraction to him, the same attraction she dreaded day and night. They walked out of the theater in silence. Riku must have sensed that something was wrong with her, as they didn't return to the beach. He hailed a taxi and they rode back to the hotel.

When she returned to the room, she sat on her bed and looked out the window at the Doghouse and sighed. Sora wasn't the only one losing his mind.

_April 2, 3:24 P.M._

_Two and a half months ago._

Harris was in his Zen sniper zone. The world around him was an insignificant blur. The only things that mattered were his rifle and the target at the end of the range. His breathing was slow and controlled; his heart rate had fallen far below rest level. The staccato bursts of other shooters had long since faded to him. He lightly rested his finger on the trigger.

The crosshairs were trained on the bull's-eye, steady as a rock. He took a deep breath, held it, and squeezed the trigger. A hole appeared dead center in the target. He exhaled and loaded another bullet. He repeated that methodical process for hours. Every waking moment he wasn't at work, he could be found at the local shooting range, keeping his marksmanship on the razor's edge of perfection. He couldn't afford to screw this job up. He had burned too many bridges.

Finally, he expended every last round of ammunition he had brought. As he packed his rifle away, the door to the range opened and a group of his friends entered. Laughing and shouting, they pushed a smiling young man towards him.

"Hey Harris! This little punk thinks he's a better shot than you! Why don't you teach him a lesson?"

Harris slung his rifle case and walked towards the rowdy group. "Some other time, guys. I just used the last of my ammo." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

The young man held up a hand to stop him. "Don't worry. We bought twenty rounds for each of us. I'll challenge you to a marksmanship contest. Most bull's-eyes out of those twenty wins." He held out his hand. "The wager is two hundred thousand Munny. You in?"

Harris unslung his rifle from his shoulder. The kid didn't know who he was dealing with. Oh well. It'd be an easy two hundred grand in his pocket. Maybe a really nice HDTV or something.

"All right. Twenty shots. Last chance to back down."

He walked out five minutes later and two hundred thousand Munny richer.

_8:13 P.M._

Dennison walked into the tech room at the Fourth Precinct. The facial search hadn't turned up any results, but he couldn't do anything without the name it would hopefully provide. He sipped his coffee and sat in a rolling chair in front of a display that showed the progress of the search. Apparently, the computer had only searched 24% of all the faces in the known universe. If the killer had escaped the Hotel Regal, he'd be long gone by now.

After twenty minutes and no visible progress, he went back to his office to get ahead on some paperwork that would otherwise pile up on him. The coffeemaker in the corner bubbled happily, droplets of what Dennison occasionally called "the lifeblood of the police" splashed in the half-full pot. He searched for a pencil in the jumble of papers and miscellaneous items covering his desk.

When he finally uncovered a sharp pencil, he got to work on the official forms. There was an invoice for more sets of body armor for his normal unit. There had recently been a drug bust in which one of his officers had taken a twelve-gauge shotgun shell to his body armor. The armor had held and the shooter was hit with a stun gun. The officer picked himself up, dusted himself off, and kicked the shooter in the face. Dennison was bound by protocol to give him an official rebuke. Privately, however, he had bought the offending cop a drink.

As he worked his way through a Request to Transfer Units form, his assistant burst into his office brandishing a piece of paper. Dennison was about to give him a piece of his mind when the dimwitted officer held up the paper, wide-eyed in excitement. Dennison couldn't believe his ears as his assistant spoke.

"Sir, we've got him!"

A/N: I _might_ write a separate one-shot in between chapters, leaving you folks with a nice little cliffhanger right there. Then again, this story is a lot of fun to write. Tell me what you think. That green button down there is lonely. He just wants a friend.


	10. Rundown

Chapter 10: Rundown

_July 16, 9:00 P.M._

"All units south of Montgomery Avenue: Converge on the Hotel Regal immediately. Do not let anyone get past you, in or out. Units on lockdown: Have everyone in the hotel return to their rooms immediately. Officers are inbound. Repeat: Units south of Montgomery converge on Hotel Regal. Guards: Get guests to their rooms."

Dennison set the radio down as his assistant drove the cruiser through the cleared road. They sped through the streets as cars pulled to the side of the road to let the convoy pass. Dennison's car and four others quickly closed in on the Hotel Regal. He made sure his pistol was loaded as he began to speak with his assistant.

"How did you manage to find him so quickly?"

His assistant answered as he swerved around a rogue pedestrian, who jumped back between the stopped cars. "I told the tech guys to terminate the universal search. I told them to restrict the list to the names on the guest list of the Hotel Regal on the day of the shooting. I can't believe you didn't think of it yourself, sir."

Dennison glowered in his seat. "What prompted you to do that?"

"I thought to myself, 'How would the lieutenant do this?' It was the first thing in my mind."

The lieutenant snorted. "Obviously it isn't how I would have done things." He looked at his assistant, who couldn't take his eyes off of the road. "It was better."

His assistant swallowed. "Thank you, sir."

The top spire of the Hotel Regal came into view as the cruiser rounded a corner. Dennison picked up the radio. "There it is! Lock and load, officers!"

Sirens and lights reflected off of the buildings flanking the road, turning the chorus of sirens into a screaming cacophony as the police cars were joined by others from around the city. Soon the convoy numbered twelve cars from six different precincts. The line of black and white cars cut through the normally crowded streets like a spear.

A voice came over the radio. "This is Lieutenant Greene in charge of the lockdown. We're having some trouble getting guests back into their rooms. They're citing the People's Concord of Rights. Advise. Over."

Dennison grabbed the mouthpiece and pushed the talk button. "This is Lieutenant Dennison. Tell them that the area is still considered a crime scene and they must comply with police orders or face prosecution. If that don't work, just force them into a corner somehow. Just _don't let anyone get away._ There'll be hell to pay if you do. Over."

Greene's voice came over the speaker after a short pause. "Roger that. Most guests are complying. Those who aren't are being rounded up by the central fountain. No serious resistance from anyone. Area is clear. Over and out."

Dennison replaced the radio mouthpiece and watched the top of the hotel get closer and closer. It would be ten minutes before he arrived.

_9:02 P.M._

Oh no.

The amount of lights and sirens in the distance could only mean one thing. They were coming for real this time; no chances were being taken after their first arrest was such an embarrassment. They'd be here in, by his estimate, a little less than ten minutes. He had less than ten minutes to escape. It would be difficult; he'd have to sneak past patrolling guards and then get past the outer ring of the lockdown. But he'd gotten past more comprehensive security systems before. This was just another mission.

He went to the bathroom and grabbed the complementary hairspray can and hid it in his light jacket as he exited his room. Walking calmly to the elevator, he pulled out a keyring and picked one unusual-looking key. When the doors closed, he put the key into the slot labeled Maintenance and hit it with the bottom of the can of hairspray. There was a tinkling of metal as the tumblers broke. He turned the key and the elevator began its descent into the Maintenance basement.

When he arrived, his first job was to shut off the main breaker for the hotel's power supply. He picked one especially thick conduit on the ceiling and followed it all the way to the breaker box. When Harris tried the handle, it was locked. He looked around for a blunt object. The first thing he found was a hammer lying next to a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He smashed the flimsy handle and opened the breaker box. Before he shut off the power, he grabbed the lighter.

Harris could hear police sirens getting nearer. He ignited the lighter and shut the main breaker. All of the lights in the basement went out, replaced seconds later with dim emergency floodlights. _Good. That should create a bit of a panic upstairs._

Lighter in hand, he walked through the aisles of cleaning and maintenance boxes. The service entrance wouldn't be heavily guarded. If he could create another distraction, it would be the perfect escape route. He looked around him for anything he could use. Cleaning solvents and assorted hardware lay around him. His eyes lit on a bottle of bleach. It gave him an idea.

He grabbed the bottle of bleach and a bucket. Setting those aside, he furiously tore through the liquids in search of ammonia. After a minute of frenzied searching, he hit the jackpot: an industrial-sized bottle of ammonia. Perfect.

Harris looked around on the ceiling for a toxic gas monitor. When he found one, he set a ladder underneath it and put the bucket on top. He poured the bleach into it. Then, his shirt covering his mouth and nose, he poured the ammonia into it. He quickly backed away as he saw thin vapors rising from the cocktail.

Harris briskly walked away from the bucket and inhaled about twenty feet away. Within seconds, the chlorine gas from the reaction of the two liquids would set off the toxic gas sensor. The police would be forced to evacuate everyone to a safe place. He knew they would simply take them to the upper floors. But it would distract the guards at the service door, giving him a chance to escape.

Sure enough, a high-pitched whistle was emitted from the sensor after fifteen seconds. He crept to the service door and peeked out the window, trying to see the police guard. One officer reached for his radio and, after a few seconds, waved for another cop to come with him. That left only once guard at the rear door. Harris wanted to escape now, but knew that the best idea was to wait, lest it be a clever trap. He sat on the floor next to the service entrance and waited.

_9:12 P.M._

Sora had waited hours for this chance, and now his plan was coming to fruition. The doctor had quarantined his cell, so everyone who went in was wearing an environment suit. The guard had just changed, and they weren't due for a check-in for another hour. That was all the time he had before his room would be discovered empty. After that, he'd sneak out of the facility and rejoin Riku and Kairi. It all rested on this moment.

His door opened, revealing another blue-suited mercenary holding a syringe of adrenaline. Moments after he injected it into Sora, the spiky-haired teen shook his head and looked up at the mercenary, feigning innocence.

"There's something leaking in the bathroom. Can you take a look at it for me?"

The soldier-for-hire grumbled something, obscured by his sealed suit. As he entered the bathroom, he looked for the offending leak. Not finding any, he voiced his unhappiness.

"I don't see no le-"

His sentence was cut off as Sora brought the hand guard of the Keyblade down on the back of the mercenary's head, knocking him unconscious. Sora began to strip the sealed suit off of the knocked-out man, hoping it would fit him slightly well. Within minutes, he had donned the suit, which, conveniently enough, had a flap of fabric and elastic specifically designed to keep the wearer's hair out of sight. But instead of a handy tool to keep long hair out of doctors' eyes, Sora would use it to hide his trademark spiky locks.

He shut the bathroom door, hiding the mercenary inside. As he walked to the door, a flaw in his plan presented itself. He didn't know the proper "password" to tap on the door. His mind raced to come up with an alternate plan.

The only idea he could come up with was lousy and unlikely to work, but it was better than nothing. Sora stood next to the inner door, leaning against the wall with his Keyblade drawn. He'd have to wait for a while.

_9:15 P.M._

Kairi sat on her bed, watching the TV. A discussion on politics was interrupted by the words "Breaking News" and a disheveled anchor appearing on the screen. The anchor adjusted his tie as he began to speak.

"This just in: Police have sent a massive number of units to the Hotel Regal within the last twenty minutes. A police spokeswoman said that an arrest was imminent in the investigation of the assassination attempt against Sora eight days ago. The name of the suspect has not been released at this time. Again: Police have stated that they are going to make an arrest at the Hotel Regal related to the assassination attempt against Sora."

Kairi sat bolt upright at the mention of her love. Could it be? Could they find the shooter? Would Sora be released soon? She watched the news with her jaw slack in disbelief.

"Riku! Come here!"

Riku burst out of the bathroom to see Kairi pointing at the TV. He sat down on the corner of his bed and watched the screen change to an airborne view of the Hotel Regal with police cars parked three deep in a semicircle around the front entrance. Large trucks labeled CH SWAT and CHPD were scattered about, unloading squads of black-clad officers wielding assault rifles as they entered the building. The anchor's voice began conversing with the helicopter reporter.

"What can you see, Judy?"

A voice distorted by static began commenting on the scene. "Well, as you can see, the police have just swarmed this building in what appears to be the most massive law enforcement mobilization this city has ever seen. They are responding to what the police department says is the identification of the shooter."

"Can you see anyone leaving the building?"

"No, but there are reports of a chlorine gas buildup in the basement. The guests are being moved to the upper stories of the hotel until the warning is verified."

"What will happen then?"

"The police will be bound by law to evacuate everyone from the building. The suspect may be able to escape in the ensuing chaos. Hazardous Materials teams will have to rope off the hotel, making this arrest very difficult for the police."

Kairi nearly screamed with joy. "Riku! They're gonna find whoever did this! We're going to get Sora back!" She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, causing him to choke and gag.

"Kairi… you're… crushing… my… lungs... nngh…"

She released him and ran to her window, grabbing the flashlight. She remembered that the lights were still on and sprinted the whole thirty feet to the switch and flicked it off. Turning the flashlight on, she ran to the window and began signaling for Sora. But he wouldn't respond. His light was on, but he apparently wasn't waiting for a message from his friends.

He was, in fact, waiting for something completely different.

_9:18 P.M._

Harris was getting edgy. The guard hadn't moved in five minutes, which meant he was going to stay put. He'd have to be removed by force.

The ex-sniper grabbed the small can of hairspray from his pocket and banged it against the door. The policeman heard the sound and burst into the room, gun drawn. Harris sprayed the stinging liquid into the officer's eyes and twisted his wrist, causing the cop to drop his handgun and fall to the ground, writhing in pain. He kicked the officer's gun away and went out the door, shutting it behind him.

He peeked over the edge of the concrete stairwell. No police were in sight. But it was only a matter of time before the officer in the basement recovered and called in an escaped guest. He'd have to move quickly and quietly.

Harris crept up in front of an empty police cruiser and eyed the alleyway behind the hotel. It wasn't well protected, but it would be the most obvious escape route; so obvious that even the police would catch on to him before long. He opted instead to go along the side of the hotel for a little bit. The police were still distracted with his chlorine trick.

A noise from a nearby alley startled him, but it was only a stray cat rustling through some garbage. This new alley seemed a less likely route for the police to investigate, so Harris looked around once more and fled into the alley.

_9:20 P.M._

Dylan Maxwell was just now sitting down to dinner. This business with Sora potentially having African sleeping sickness had kept him distracted all day. He had read the doctor's report; it could only be transmitted by bodily fluid. It seemed unlikely, but he and his girlfriend were pretty intimate. Not to mention they were celebrities. You don't get to be a celebrity without having a secret life outside the public eye.

Dinner, such as it was, consisted of chicken tenders and mashed potatoes in chicken gravy with grilled zucchini and a garden salad. He had rejected a glass of Merlot in favor of a juice blend. He bit into the tenders with zest; he hadn't eaten since breakfast.

The situation with Sora didn't seem right. True, he and his girlfriend were close. They had even shared hearts at one point in the past. But they didn't seem like the type to get into bed with each other at such a young age. That made sleeping sickness an unlikely possibility. But few other things caused his symptoms. It was maddening.

He took a large swig of his juice and was about to take a mouthful of mashed potatoes when he started coughing. _Must have gone down the wrong pipe there._

That thought, however, was dashed when he couldn't stop coughing. He felt his throat closing up. Something had gone very wrong. People heard his extended hacking and burst into his office, trying to help calm him down. It was far too late. Maxwell was on the ground, clutching his throat, face turning purple.

By the time the doctor arrived, the poison in Maxwell's juice had taken its toll. He was rushed to the onsite medical suite and was pronounced dead on arrival.

_9:22 P.M._

"Hey, come on out, man. We've got a situation."

Sora stood next to the door, praying that the mercenary would enter the room. _Come on, just open the door. Do it._

Sora's prayers were answered when the mercenary opened the door and looked around, confused. He hit the floor a moment later as Sora stood over him, Keyblade drawn. He dragged the unconscious man into the bathroom along with the first mercenary and sealed the door. No need to have these two squealing anytime soon.

He passed through the inner door and pointed the Keyblade at the lock on the outer door. A scintillating beam of light shot from the tip of the blade into the keypad, which unlocked itself with an electronic beep. The door swung open, servo motors humming. He closed the door behind him and began his trek to the outside world.

Within seconds, a patrolling mercenary crossed his path. Hoping he would be mistaken for one of the men attending to him, Sora quickly strode past the mercenary, looking away from him. Both people continued without a second glance. Sora realized he had been holding his breath and exhaled once the mercenary was around a corner. As much as the incident had scared him, however, it gave him confidence in his disguise. The patrolling soldier had walked by him without as much as a curious glance.

There were no directional markers in the hallways, so Sora had to guess his way by memory and gut instinct. He took a wrong turn once and ended up near the armory. Quickly turning around, he headed in the opposite direction. He wondered how long it would be before his stealthy escape turned into a foot chase. He hoped it wouldn't have to.

_9:25 P.M._

As much as Harris wanted to proceed quickly, he had to balance speed with silence. If he moved too quickly, someone would pick up on his escape. He was still less than a block away from the Hotel Regal, and police had begun regular patrols on the streets surrounding it. If he suddenly popped out into the open, he'd be beaten into the pavement by several angry policemen. That was something to be avoided, if at all possible.

A police car drove by the alley and shone a bright light down its' length. Harris narrowly avoided detection by hiding behind a dumpster just in time. Close calls were nothing new for him. He'd had bullets fly half an inch past his head without so much as flinching. The threat of detection by the police paled to the threat if instant death. His heart rate had barely increased during that incident.

Harris stopped to examine the situation. He knew that if he were running the patrols, he'd have about a thirty second window in between each patrol. Enough to spread manpower effectively, but not so much that it clogged the streets. That gave him almost no time to cross the street. He could wait in they alley; stay hidden until the patrols were sent farther out to search for the missing guest.

But then he remembered the policeman he had attacked in the Maintenance basement. He'd get up within a few minutes and radio for help. Policemen would come out of the woodworks if that happened. No, he'd have to proceed immediately.

He waited for the next cruiser to pass by the alley and sprinted to the sidewalk, where he adopted a casual walking pace. _Twenty-five seconds._ He walked to the corner and waited for the walk signal to turn. _Ten seconds._ The "Walk" light came on, and he followed the rest of the crowd across the street.

By that time, the next police car had pulled up to the light. By some miracle, the officers identified Harris in the crowd and jumped out of the car, handguns drawn. Harris bolted towards the sidewalk, avoiding the slow-moving crowd as much as possible. The cops got back in their car and began to pursue him.

He ran down another alley as the car tried to follow him. By the time he came out the other side, two cars were waiting for him. He turned back and ran up a fire escape as policemen followed hot on his heels. He heard the one thing he dreaded over the officers' portable radios.

"_Use of deadly force authorized._"

With that sentence, the cops stopped chasing him and started shooting. Luckily, they were all beneath him, and the bullets didn't penetrate the metal stairs. Harris got to the roof and vaulted the small ledge. He ran to the other side of the building and jumped. He jumped higher and farther than he ever had in his life; higher and farther than he thought was possible. Even with that, and the thin alley beneath him, he was just able to grab the roof of the adjacent building, swing his legs over the top, and continue onward.

The police officers, not wanting to attempt such a stunt, stood on the roof and fired at him as he darted between various pieces of cover. When he disappeared behind the stairwell entrance, they radioed the direction he was taking to the other cops joining in the rundown. They holstered their weapons and climbed down the fire escape back to their vehicles.

Harris hid behind the brick stairwell, panting. That jump had taken a lot out of him. He couldn't do it again. He looked around on the roof for rope, chain; anything that could be used to get him to the next rooftop. A pair of planks caught his eye. He laid them on top of each other and swung them over they alley. They were just long enough to form a precarious bridge.

He stepped onto the planks. As he walked to the middle, the two boards sagged and creaked ominously. Harris quickened his pace and reached the other side. When he did, he pulled the planks over with him. No need to keep a convenient bridge up for the police.

The next set of buildings were all connected, but at differing heights. Harris had to jump to reach the roof of some buildings and jumped down to others. When he reached the end of the block, he grabbed onto a supporting I-beam that protruded from the building and shimmied his way to street level. When he did, there were no police in sight. He ducked into another alley and hoped he wouldn't be found again.

_9:31 P.M._

Something big must have happened. That was the only explanation Sora had for the amount of people running past him in the halls. None of them paid any attention to the out-of-place environment suit in the middle of the halls.

Whatever it was, Sora was grateful for it. He was certain that if people were paying attention, someone would have noticed him by now. His stealthy escape would quickly dissolve into a flat-out race; a race he would inevitably lose. All they had to do was engage the electronic lockdown of the building. Steel plates would fall over every door and window in the Doghouse. It would turn into a prison. There would be no escape after that.

He went down a likely-looking hallway only to end up at the fitness center. He was well and truly lost now. He'd just have to continue wandering until he found an exit. The layout of this building was extremely complicated. Maybe it was to prevent an easy hostile takeover. No matter the reason, it was driving Sora nuts. Every hallway ended in a different kind of dead end. He just wanted to find a stairwell.

The next hallway he took finally had a stairwell in it. He expected an easy descent to the ground floor only to discover the stairs only went between the third and fourth floors. He felt his anger rising. Whoever designed this building must have been seriously high on something.

The third floor was just as confusing and irritating as the fourth. Hallways weren't marked, nothing went in any direction for very long, and he must have been near the center of the North Wing, because he hadn't seen any windows for a while. That was just his luck. If he could see outside, he might have been able to reorient himself. Even a measly compass would have been helpful.

_9:35 P.M._

When Anton had heard that Dylan Maxwell, Sora's Head of Security, had been poisoned, he immediately sent one of his few underlings to check on Sora. In this time of confusion, it would be nice to know the main objective was still in sight. If Sora was still alright, everything would end up alright, even if they lost one of their best in the process.

Even though he personally hated Maxwell, he respected him as a leader and a soldier. He was a forceful, decisive man who never let emotion cloud his judgment. Anton envied him for that quality. Many a time someone had remarked that Anton's decisions were based on feelings, not logic. It was a good quality for a philanthropist, not a mercenary. It was Anton's goal to try and use more logic in his judgment.

When the dispatched man reached Sora's room, he tapped on the inner door. No response. He tapped again, once more receiving no response. When he opened the door, Sora's bed was empty, and the two men were nowhere in sight. He opened the bathroom door to discover the mercenaries lying crumpled on the floor, one of them sans clean suit. When he saw this, he blew his top. He had seen a strange-looking guy pass by him wearing a clean suit. It must have been Sora.

_Son of a bitch!_

He reached for his radio to report this unfortunate turn of events, only to discover he had left it in his barracks. Great. He'd never hear the end of this. He sprinted back to the door only to find it had closed behind him. Now he'd never get out in time. He sat on Sora's bed, loathing and admiring the kid all at once.

He certainly was smart when he needed to be.

A/N: All the stuff Harris does in this chapter is actually possible and dangerous. Don't try any of it, especially mixing ammonia and bleach. It releases chlorine gas, which is TOXIC and DEADLY. Don't do it.


	11. Stealth

Chapter 11: Stealth

_July 16, 9:37 P.M._

Sora continued to wander the halls of the Doghouse. He was stuck on the third floor with no idea of which direction to go. The haphazard layout of the North Wing prevented easy navigation through the bowels of the installation. The only other stairwell he encountered led directly to the fifth floor. His heavy breathing began to fog the visor of his environment suit.

He came to a T-intersection in the hall and looked down both sides. Neither held any more promise than the other, so he arbitrarily selected the left side. As soon as he rounded the next corner, a downward-leading staircase came into view. He ran to it and jumped down half of the stairs to the first landing, stopping inches from the wall. He proceeded down the next set of stairs to the second level.

This floor was different than the others. All of the hallways were long and narrow. There were few turns and many closed doors. Sora ran down every hallway in under thirty seconds. There were no staircases except the one he had taken down here. He looked out a nearby window. Sure enough, the ground was not far away. This was definitely the second floor.

He considered trying to break the window and sprint to the fence, but it was made of inch-thick bulletproof glass. His blows would bounce off it as though his Keyblade were plastic.

Sora tried to remember the way the mercenaries had taken him to his room. He had been blindfolded at the time, so he didn't recognize any of the hallways. But he did remember going up and down a seemingly excessive number of stairs. He had assumed that was to disorient him in case he tried to memorize the route to escape later.

A thought hit him. Maybe those trips were necessary. Maybe some floors were only accessible from the one above it. That would explain his _descent _onto the fourth floor when they put him here eight days ago.

He ran around the floor once again. No stairs save for the set leading back to the third floor. He ran back up there and looked for the flight that would take him to the fifth floor.

_9:42 P.M._

Harris was near the outer edge of the downtown area. Within minutes, he'd enter the dangerous East Side; a place where police were unwelcome. Maybe from there he'd be able to buy safe passage out of the city from one of its' criminal families. The Mob wasn't as dangerous to deal with as most people assumed. Offer them enough money and they'd do most anything. He had plenty to give them.

He heard the distant sound of a police siren and instinctively ducked into an alley. The sound quickly faded, and he cautiously returned to the sidewalk. His casual clothing blended in perfectly with the thin crowd of people just beginning to head to nightclubs. He figured that if a cop could pick him out of this crowd, well, they deserved to catch him. It would be quite a feat.

As he walked down the street, he felt his old paranoia rising in him. This was too easy. His escape from the actual hotel was plenty difficult, but his escape from the pursuing police was far too simple. A run across some easily accessible rooftops, some slinking through alleys; it all seemed like a ruse. The police should be scouring every inch of the city for him, yet he hadn't seen an actual cop in nearly fifteen minutes. Something was out of place.

He shrugged and chalked it up to his paranoia. He was an expert at stealthy infiltration. No doubt the police were used to dealing with local rabble, maybe a belligerent Mob boss. But a highly trained covert operative? He'd leave the cops in the dust. He had evaded terrorist cells and foreign hunter-killer squads on his home world for years of military service. Metropolitan police officers weren't such a threat compared to them.

He mentally reviewed the research he had done on Comberth Harbor's criminal underworld. The Capelli family controlled most of the East Side, but they didn't do much in the way of quiet transportation. For that, the Tupolev family was the top of the line. Luckily, their turf was closest to downtown and the first stop on Harris' route.

When he passed by a corner grocer just after crossing the street, a man in a tan trench coat left the store and walked thirty feet behind Harris, looking at the buildings on either side of the road.

_9:44 P.M._

Sora's hatred for the North Wing grew with every hallway he walked down. The entire place was one giant multi-story maze. It was driving him up the wall. Every time he thought he knew where he was, something popped up that made him reconsider his assessment. This must have been the most confusing building built by man. A soul could get lost in there and never come out.

He was beginning to feel he might be one of those unlucky people. He was on the fifth floor and couldn't find another flight of stairs. What he could find was the women's bathroom, an empty armory, a server room, and a food storage room. Nothing that suggested he was any closer to the exit than before.

His running from floor to flood didn't seem to be helping, so he tried to remember how he had been brought into the building. The only things he remembered clearly were going _up_ a huge flight of stairs right at the beginning and going _down_ to the fourth floor. So if he was on the fifth floor, he was doing something right. He didn't remember if he had gone up or down to get to the fifth floor, but it was still progress.

He began to run around the halls, disregarding the casual queries of the few people who were roaming the halls. They didn't pursue him, so he assumed they didn't recognize him and didn't care what an environment-suited mercenary was doing running around the building. Both were blessings, as he doubted he could avoid recognition when talking face to face with someone.

The environment suit was completely sealed, so the air inside rapidly became hot and sticky from his wanderings. He could feel his otherwise gravity-defying hair becoming matted to his head. He didn't dare take the head covering of the suit off, though, for fear of recognition. The only course of action was to deal with it and stay quiet.

Another stairwell appeared at the end of the hallway, leading to the sixth floor. Sora ran to it, hoping the path to the first floor started up there.

He ascended the stairs quickly, garnering odd looks from a foursome of mercenaries descending the stairwell. They made a weak attempt to stop him, but he disregarded their shouts and continued running. If he didn't make it out soon, someone would stop him, likely at gunpoint. He doubted he was fast enough on the draw to cast a Reflect spell before someone shot him. His shoulder ached at the thought.

The sixth floor was mildly more cohesive in design than the third, fourth, or fifth floors, but it wasn't the straight-line hallways of the second. Sora was glad for the reprieve from the claustrophobic confines of the lower floors. The door to the downward-leading stairwell was locked, so Sora looked around quickly before drawing the Keyblade and unlocking the door. He dismissed the Keyblade and opened the door with a quiet click.

_9:49 P.M._

Harris had walked for several minutes before he noticed the man tailing him. Or at least he thought the man was tailing him. Maybe he was just being paranoid again. However, paranoia can be useful if it was controlled. It made you more aware and gave you a rare insight into the potential plans of your enemies. You were omniscient, but only if you didn't send yourself into a debilitating tailspin of paranoia. That was dangerous; you were likely to overanalyze everything and waste too much time.

He exhaled and tried to concentrate. Losing a tail was no big deal. The first thing to do was confirm the tail.

A nearby crowd gathered around the entrance to a nightclub where the bouncer was trying to hold off a group of muscular men. They were slowly pushing the bouncer out of the way. It was the perfect place to confirm a tail. Harris walked into the crowd, weaving between people and ducking a bit to hide himself. When he emerged and walked a bit away, the man was still following him. Any other person would have stopped momentarily to see the spectacle. He was definitely following Harris.

_Damn,_ Harris thought, _he must be undercover. I gotta ditch this guy somewhere._

He continued his earlier train of thought. Step two was to become unpredictable.

Harris stood at a street corner as if he was going to cross the road directly in front of him. When the signal turned to "Walk", however, he sprinted across the road to his right, causing drivers to brake and lay on their horns. The man in the trench coat waited for an opening, then jogged across the street seconds after Harris. Bad luck. More traffic and that guy was history.

The next intersection wasn't far away. When Harris reached the corner, the man in the trench coat stopped and stood next to the curb, waiting to cross. Harris couldn't believe his luck. _The idiot! He's betraying his next move. I'll just head the other way._

Harris was still smirking when a stun gun sent fifty thousand volts arcing through him.

_9:50 P.M._

Sora reached the top of the stairs and saw a sign that made his heart sink. It said PRESENT ID BADGE OR ALARM WILL SOUND in big bold letters. _Great_, Sora thought, _now what do I do? I can't open it with the Keyblade, because it'll set off the alarm._ _I don't have an ID badge, and… wait, what is this?_

Sora looked down at the chest of his suit. He hadn't noticed the plastic card clipped to a small metal ring. He removed it and held it in front of a scanner on the wall. A laser read the bar code and the door lock disengaged with a loud bang. He walked onto the next floor.

He was surprised by his new surroundings. The seventh-floor hallways were dark, lit only by dim red floodlights. There were no doors, only openings that led to various rooms staffed by people wearing headsets sitting in front of screens displaying a multitude of information. The only sound was the occasional order given by someone sitting at a console.

Sora held his breath. He was in the command center for Donner Security Consultants. Every field operation, every smaller facility, every security camera, and every sensor owned by DSC fed information into this room. The doors had labels above them. There was one labeled OPERATIONS, one labeled SECURITY, another was INTEL; there was NORTH WING and EAST WING and WEST WING and SOUTH WING, and some that made no sense to him, such as DSC-SF(CA)-02 and UXO-IED-EOD.

As Sora silently made his way down the dark hallway, he came across a huge room labeled C&C. There were consoles with operators lining the walls and a ring of consoles in the center of the room surrounding a central display showing the status of the facility they were in. On the far wall there was a map of the facility.

Sora's first instinct was to run from the room full of mercenaries, but none of them even glanced in his direction. He tentatively stepped in the room. Nobody paid him any attention; they were completely absorbed in their display.

He adopted the most official-casual gait he could as he made his way across the room to the giant map on the far wall. He made it the entire way without so much as an odd look. He was trying to locate himself on the map when he saw a string of letters and numbers along the bottom. He read it to himself.

_To reach ground floor, take stairs to following floors in order: 2-7-4-8-5-6-1. Note: floors divided into two parts each. No shortcuts._

That explained his frustration. He had to get to this floor before heading down to the fourth floor, then head to the eighth, and so on. Not only that, but the floors had two completely separate parts. They may as well have been in another wing. He quickly memorized the floor sequence and turned to exit.

However, the bottoms of the boots on his suit were slippery, so he spun and fell with a loud thump. He braced himself for the inevitable outbursts and rough handling that always accompanied angry mercenaries, but it never came. Nobody even looked in his direction.

He could understand being absorbed by one's work, but this was ridiculous. There was absolutely no reaction to the clean-suited trespasser that had just fallen loudly to the floor. He crept up behind one operator and looked at the earphones she was wearing. His questions were answered when he saw the text "Active Noise Cancellation" on the earpiece. Thanking his lucky stars, he walked out of the room towards the stairwell leading downwards.

However, the other part of the sixth floor was very crowded. Sora had to push his way through everyone, and he received many strange glances. The suit was beginning to attract unwanted attention. He'd have to ditch it soon. Pushing through the crowd, he quickly found the next stairwell. He had to get to the fourth floor before ascending again.

_10:04 P.M._

Dennison had still been in the Hotel Regal when he got the call. A pair of undercover officers had apprehended the suspect and was bringing him to the Fourth Precinct for interrogation. It seemed he would finally catch a break in this investigation. Now he had a hard source of information. He had called his assistant to their car and sped off towards the station, siren blaring.

Now he was in an interrogation room, waiting for the man to wake up from his stupor. The second undercover cop had shot him with a stun gun and held the trigger down a bit too long, keeping the five-thousand volt subduing current active after the main jolt of fifty thousand had passed. Now the suspected sniper was tied to a metal chair in front of a table, drooling on his shirt.

A medical team had performed a quick examination and determined that he would be in good enough shape to talk when he woke up, which would be soon. Dennison waited patiently for that time. He had some questions he desperately wanted to answer.

His assistant came to the door with two cups of coffee. He gave one to Dennison and set the other down on the table. After he paused to look over the suspect, he gave Dennison a thumbs-up and left the room.

After ten more minutes had passed, the sniper still hadn't woken up. Dennison made a mental note to give the undercover cop a stern talk about the proper use of a stun gun. The trigger was not supposed to be held down for ten full seconds. Two seconds was plenty.

His only consolation was the upcoming interrogation. Normally he hated questioning. More often than not witnesses and suspects were very uncooperative. But this time was different. He had a lot to use against this one. The sniper was over the metaphorical barrel. All Dennison would have to do is start listing consequences and the guy would open up like a faucet. This interrogation may very well be a career-maker. That was enough to keep him in good spirits for a while.

_10:11 P.M._

Sora pulled off the environment suit's body section. He was soaked in sweat from his exertions over the past hour. Even his hair was beginning to sag from the excess weight. He shook his head, and his hair sprung back to normal.

Stowing the suit in an unused office, he peeked around the corner. He was on the sixth floor, heading up to the eighth. This part of the sixth floor wasn't nearly as crowded as the part he had seen earlier. That was good.

The bad part was now he had no disguise. He'd have to be completely stealthy. If he was spotted, he'd have to neutralize the person who saw him. He shook his head. The mercenaries' slang was becoming ingrained in his head. Openly using words like "neutralize" was very unlike Sora. The sooner he could escape the better.

He crept along a wall, hoping nobody would choose that exact time to pop out from around a corner. Darting from door alcove to door alcove, he kept careful watch on his front and rear. If someone saw him from behind, they'd be able to report him long before Sora could do anything about it.

He reached a staircase heading up. This flight wasn't like the other seventh-floor entrance. It was a normal set of double doors. No red-lit hallways, no command centers. Just more doors set into the walls about three feet.

However, the people on this part of the floor were acutely alert. Sora narrowly avoided running into a group of three mercenaries heading to the fifth-floor break room. He looked back on his memories of the Invisible Heartless with envy. If he could simply turn himself invisible, this would be a cakewalk. But he was still human, and humans were always one hundred percent invisible, recent experiments with active camouflage notwithstanding.

He had just located the entrance to the eighth-floor stairwell when a voice from behind startled him. He whipped around, Keyblade drawn, finding himself face-to-face with Anton. The kind mercenary had a shocked look on his face.

"Sora! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be sick!"

Sora held up a hand to quiet him. "Shh! Not so loud!" He looked around to make sure their conversation was private. "I'm busting myself out of here, and I'm not gonna let anyone get in my way. I gotta see Kairi."

Anton continued his questioning in a hushed voice. "How are you even walking? The doctor thought you might have African sleeping sickness! We quarantined your room! How did you get out?"

"Well, I could tell you the whole story, or I could just say that I'm totally a master at stealth." Sora pounded his chest once with his fist.

The mercenary shook his head slowly. "You can't be here; you can't get out of here without being seen. There are guards everywhere on the outside, and that's only an issue if you know how to get to the first floor."

Sora stood up and straightened his back. "I just happen to know the way. 2-7-4-8-5-6-1. Am I right?"

Anton's jaw dropped as Sora recited what was supposed to be a carefully guarded secret of Donner Security. He was about to ask how Sora had come into possession of that information when he remembered the route went through the Command Center on the seventh floor. "You saw the map on the wall, didn't you?"

Sora smiled at him. "Yeah! I would never have made it this far without it. Why is this building so confusing, anyway?"

Shaking his head, Anton put a hand on Sora's uninjured shoulder. "I can't just let you leave. Remember why you're here. The killer is still out there somewhere. If I have to, I'll fight to keep you here."

The smile on Sora's face disappeared. He knew he would regret his next actions. Summoning the Keyblade and adopting a fighting stance, he looked Anton straight in the eyes. "I think we both know who'd win. I don't want to fight you. You've been a good person to me. But if you get between me and Kairi, I'll have to fight you. Neither one of us wants that."

Anton's shoulders sagged. The kid had called his bluff. Now he had no choice but to let him go. "Alright, go on. But I never saw you here. I can't help you if you get into serious trouble. Here's my last piece of advice: All the guards are armed with at least one magazine of rubber bullets. They aren't lethal, but they'll knock you out faster than any tranquilizer. Don't let that happen to you."

Sora nodded and ran up the staircase.

_10:20 P.M._

Harris awoke in a dark room. He was vaguely aware of the recent chain of events. When he couldn't remember anything after seeing the undercover officer betray his next move, he realized he must have been captured. When he tried to move his arms, his suspicions were confirmed. He saw the policeman from the TV leaning on the wall across from him, sipping from a foam cup.

The cop finished his drink and threw the cup into a small trash can in the corner of the room. He leaned on the table and introduced himself. "I'm Lieutenant Dennison with the Metro Police. I've been hunting you for eight days now. It's been a frustrating case, but much shorter than most. We had a considerable stroke of luck recently." He picked up another cup from the table. "First things first, we need to get to know each other. What's your name?

Harris looked straight at Dennison. "I think you already know it."

The lieutenant took a sip of his coffee. "That's true. I just want to see how clear your memory is. You just got Tazed, bro!" He laughed at his own joke.

Harris was considerably less amiable. "Brian Jacob Harris, retired Special Forces. That's all I'm allowed to tell you."

Dennison took another sip of coffee. "You sure? Can't tell me the unit? Service branch? Nation? Even what world?"

"That information is classified. I may be retired, but I can still be court marshaled for divulging that information, even if you have a warrant for it."

_The cop must know something, _Harris thought. _He's pressing my military service unusually hard._

"Are you sure it's still classified? 'Cause we found the world pretty easily. We just don't know the government or service branch. But those are trifles. Your world makes it all obvious. It's one of the few to be united under a single government." The lieutenant leaned over, level with Harris' face. "You served for the Destiny Islands military."

_Damn. He did know._

Dennison stood back up. "That's an interesting pedigree. It ties you to Sora pretty well. You're from the same world. But what have you got against Sora? If memory serves, he pulled your world out of the darkness. It's a good thing he did, because the military sure didn't help much."

Harris had seen similar tactics in training before. The interrogator would try to make the captive angry and lure him into giving away information. He couldn't let that happen. There was much more at stake than his own life. "You know as well as I do that conventional weapons hardly affect the Heartless. Bullets pass through them and keep on going. They barely leave a mark. What are you _really _getting at?"

"I'm just establishing your past; making sure we have our facts right. But since you seem to know all the tricks of the trade, we're gonna skip to the meat and potatoes." Dennison leaned on his fist. "Why did you try to kill Sora?"

The SpecOps veteran fabricated a quick, convincing story. "He couldn't save my family. They were consumed by the Heartless as he went gallivanting off to save his precious Kairi. The Heartless took my daughter Kona. I escaped with Shelby while he ran from place to place looking for his little friends when he should have been trying to save his world!"

Dennison flashed a sarcastic smile. "Really, now? Because our records indicate you only had one daughter, who you claim you rescued. That checks out, but it still doesn't answer my question."

Harris felt a panic rising within him, but he suppressed it with his years of military training. He sighed and tried again. "I'm in deep financial trouble. I'm behind on my alimony and child support payments. Some guy came to me with an offer to pay me big and get rid of my ex-wife's lawyers forever. I figured I could get away clean. If that bullet had flown true, I would have."

The lieutenant impassively asked another question. "Did you take a Warp Gummi ship here?"

"Yes…"

Dennison smirked. "You must have missed the series of lawsuits that happened a few years ago. It was found that Gummi Ship warps occasionally warp sensitive optics, such as the glass lenses in a camera or binoculars." He looked straight into Harris' eyes. "Or a sniper scope."

Harris felt a knot form in his stomach. Did he really forget about that? Could this whole thing have been avoided by taking a normal-space Gummi Ship? He cursed himself for his forgetfulness, but quickly stopped. Self-recrimination was a luxury he couldn't afford right now.

The young cop smiled and took another sip of coffee. "Yes, it seems Sora's life was decided by random chance. If that warp hadn't twisted the lenses in your scope, he'd be dead and you'd be a rich man. But there's more to your story. This isn't just about money." He finished his coffee and crushed the cup in his hand. "What is it really about?"

Harris was about to answer when another policeman opened the interrogation room door. "I'm sorry sir, but there's something that requires your immediate attention. The Commissioner requests your presence."

Dennison threw his cup away and pointed at Harris. "We're not finished here."


	12. Alternative Methods

Chapter 12: Alternative Methods

_July 19, 10:22 P.M._

The eighth floor was another labyrinth of twisting hallways and dead ends. Sora crept from alcove to alcove, still dripping with sweat. Noises from activity on the floor above helped mask the sound of his footsteps on the carpet as he quietly searched for the next flight of stairs. The only way to get to the first floor was to go down from here, back up one floor, then down to ground level. After that, he'd have to sneak past the perimeter guards, who would be outfitted with rubber bullets and stun guns. It would require the utmost in patience and stealth. Sora hoped he was up to the task.

He heard someone coming and quickly looked for cover. The door to a nearby office was open and there were no lights on inside. He quickly slipped inside just as a pair of lightly-armed mercenaries walked by, engrossed in their conversation. Sora could just barely see the handguns on their hips. The straps on the top of their holsters were unsnapped. They must have been expecting something.

Sora waited until the two men rounded a corner before continuing on his way. He was starting to get the hang of traversing these halls. If he always took right turns, he could search the entire floor and still stay fairly hidden when he turned the corners. It was a matter of seconds until he found the next staircase. The door was unlocked, so he pushed it open and tiptoed down. When the stairs seemed longer than most, Sora began to wonder about them. _Do they completely bypass the seventh floor? It would make sense. I've already been in both halves of it._

When the staircase ended, Sora crouched low to the ground before peeking his head out of the door. Nobody in sight. He silently walked through the doorway and followed the hallway to the right. He heard voices approaching and took cover in an alcove near an intersection. Three mercenaries carrying radio equipment passed the intersection, never turning in Sora's direction.

From his hiding spot near the crossing hallways, Sora could see the entrance to the next stairwell. He looked around to make sure he was alone, then ran to the double doors. It seemed like a lucky break until he reached the bottom of the steps. Two mercenaries stood on the other side of another set of double doors. Sora saw them and stepped back onto the middle landing.

From his hiding spot behind the first group of steps, he could just make out the conversation being carried out between the two men. What he heard disturbed him.

"For real? Like, I know someone's trying to get at him, but this? This is too much, man. How did they even get into the kitchen?"

"I dunno. All I know is someone poisoned Maxwell's drink."

"What with?"

"They think digitalis. But it could be anything at this point."

"Damn, man. That's nuts. So, like, is that why we're guarding this freakin' staircase? They think someone's gonna try to take 'im out while he's in his cell?"

The mention of the word "cell" irked Sora. Even the people responsible for his situation knew it was imprisonment.

"Yeah. They think that if whoever did this took out the leader of Sora's protection team, it'll be easier to storm this place. That's why were standing here in full armor waiting for someone to tell us to go home. It's stupid, if ya ask me. Nobody's got the balls to attack us."

Sora's shoulders drooped. Great. They were in body armor. That would make this ten times more difficult.

He peeked around the railing at the door. They swung outwards, towards the mercenaries. That would help. The men were facing each other. Not so helpful. They didn't have radios at the ready. Good. They didn't have guns in their hands. _Very_ good. The score was three to one in favor of taking them out in one fell swoop. He crouched on the lower stairs and prepared to pounce.

One guard rolled his eyes at something the other said and looked into the window on the door. His eyes widened as he saw Sora on the other side. He was about to reach for his radio when the door swung open and hit him square in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious. Before the first guard hit the floor, Sora whipped around and smashed the second guard into the cinderblock wall. His head smacked against the off-white surface with a thud. His eyes rolled back into his head as he fell into Sora's arms. Apparently the body armor hadn't helped them much.

Sora dragged the guards into the stairwell and hit them under the upper portion of the stairs. He closed the doors behind him and began his trek for the next flight, pondering what the guards had said. Was Maxwell really dead? How had someone gotten access to his dinner? It was either an inside job or an extremely well executed covert operation.

The cogs in his brain kept turning as he made his way through the halls of the sixth floor. Someone had positioned a sniper along the parade route that had only been finalized two days earlier. Then they had poisoned his Head of Security. Nobody outside this building knew his name, save for Riku and Kairi. Neither of them would betray him, so who did that leave?

It must be someone with resources. A _lot_ of resources. Especially money. Sora realized he may very well be up against a trillionaire. That narrowed down the range of suspects considerably. Sora didn't know of any offhand, but there was undoubtedly a list he could check. Find someone he had angered and have them investigated. Or arrested. Or ejected into deep space. Anything to get them to stop.

As he passed by a conference room in which people were discussing next year's budget, he had a terrible epiphany. If someone had enough access to poison Dylan Maxwell, why would they stop there? There could be any number of unexpected surprises in store for him. What was lurking just beneath the surface, ready to strike at the opportune moment?

What else had wormed its way into the Doghouse?

_10:22 P.M._

_The same time._

"Ah, Lieutenant. We have an urgent matter that requires your attention."

The Commissioner held the phone away from his mouth as he spoke to Dennison. The lieutenant irritably walked up to the senior police official. He was about to speak when the Commissioner held up a finger to silence him and resumed his conversation on the phone. "Well, run a blood test to confirm digitalis and report back when it's done."

He hung up the phone and returned his attention to Dennison. "Sora's Head of Security was just poisoned about an hour ago. The Doghouse has gone on high alert and they haven't heard from the men attending to Sora in even longer. I need you to go over there and find out what's happening."

Dennison shook his head. "I'm interrogating the suspect at this time. I can send someone else, but you'll need to brief them on the whole situation. I doubt that little tidbit is gonna get outside the Doghouse walls."

Nodding, the Commissioner opened a manila folder and extracted the only piece of paper inside. It was the report of the incident from Donner Security. "There have been a few odd occurrences there over the past few days. A few days ago, the light circuit in Sora's room shorted out. They still haven't been able to replace it. Earlier this morning, one of their warehouse attendants disappeared. However, he's been known to go out and drink during his shift. I still think it's noteworthy."

Dennison read over the sheet of paper and handed it back to the old officer. "I'd like to go there, but I've got my friend strung up in Interrogation 2. I need to attend to him before I can do anything else."

"Alright, but know this: there's a situation brewing at DSC. It could bubble over any minute now."

_10:29 P.M._

The metal chair in which Harris sat was small and uncomfortable. The room was dark and made him slightly claustrophobic, which never happened to him. There was a mirror behind him, which he knew was only one-way. Behind it, there would eventually be cops watching his interrogation, sipping on their cups of coffee as if it were a damn spectator event.

It was all part of the plan. The room was specifically designed to be uncomfortable. A comfortable suspect would be able to resist questioning for much longer than the patience of the police could hold out. If they were out of their comfort zone, however, things changed rapidly. An otherwise silent man turned into a gushing fountain after prolonged interrogation in an intimidating environment.

The door opened again and Dennison walked into the room. He pulled another chair to the table and sat down, signature cup of coffee in hand.

"So, where were we, Mister Harris?"

Harris stuck his nose up and looked down on the lieutenant. "I believe we were discussing my so-called 'motive'?"

Dennison took a large gulp of coffee and nodded his head. "Ah yes, we were. Care to elaborate? Take your time, we've got plenty. I don't have to do anything until tomorrow night."

"Well, then I think I'll wait."

The lieutenant's chuckle was hollow and humorless. "Harris. Harris. I don't think you fully understand the situation you've gotten yourself into here. In Comberth Harbor, the courts don't make any distinction between murder and attempted murder. The punishment for both is life in prison or death." He took a sip of coffee, never taking his gaze off of Harris. "I think we both know which one you're gonna get."

Harris could feel himself beginning to panic and knew he had to stop this. "Are you threatening me?"

"No, no. Just spelling out the consequences you will face if convicted."

A new boldness rose within Harris. "Really? 'Cause it sounds to me like you're trying to scare me into divulging information by threatening me with death. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's about ten different kinds of illegal."

Dennison leaned back in his chair. "Oh, what are you gonna do about it? You're not a citizen of this nation. Our rights don't apply to you."

"Aha! But they do!" Harris glared at Dennison with fire in his eyes. "Your People's Concord of Rights spells it out clearly in the introduction! 'These rights, which we find to be vital to the liberty of the people, shall not be withheld from any man, be he a citizen of the State or an alien within our borders.' Tell me I'm wrong." Dennison's expression gained a hint of surprise at the quick recitation of one of the most famous lines from the Concord. Harris stared straight back at him. "I did my homework."

That left Dennison with only his last ditch effort. Maybe the man hadn't quite memorized everything about the Concord yet. "That's correct. But what effect does that have on you? You're in police custody. Even citizens lose some rights if they're suspected of a crime."

"I'm entitled to refuse questioning until there is a lawyer present. And I can afford my own. You'll just have to wait until he arrives."

Now Dennison was out of options. He had to admit defeat. "Alright, Mister Harris. You win. I'll have a phone brought in and you can call your attorney."

He exited the room, far angrier than when he had entered.

_10:34 P.M._

Sora had made it to the fifth floor. He now had to find his way to the other half of the sixth floor. After that, he could go directly to the first floor and make his escape. Once he did, he could once again taste the sweet nectar of freedom.

His natural optimism kept his heart light and his disposition cheerful even as he held his breath while mercenaries walked blissfully by. He got lucky a couple of times; once the mercenary had been stumbling to the medical ward, bleeding profusely from his arm. He had run past Sora without a second thought, completely distracted by his own injury. Another time Sora had gone too fast and nearly bumped into a mercenary going the same direction as him.

Overall, though, the halls were sparsely populated. Nobody seemed to be roaming the halls at this late hour. Sora momentarily wondered what they would be like during the day. A Saturday night just didn't keep as many people at work as most other nights.

Sora was walking down a short segment of wall when he passed by a window. He stopped to look at the glowing skyline of the city. In an instant, he recognized one building as the hotel that Riku and Kairi were staying in. _Hold on, Kairi,_ he thought, _I'm on my way._

He was forced to move as he heard footsteps approaching from behind him.

_8:42 A.M._

_Local time._

The Ringmaster sat at his desk, admiring his plot on paper. The poisoning of Maxwell was quite a feat. If only Sora's food wasn't checked and re-checked for every conceivable poison… It was fun to fantasize about the young boy taking a big gulp of tropical juice and falling dead on the floor seconds later. It would be justice. That boy had caused him an incredible amount of trouble ever since he had returned from his little quest. The most recent attempt at his life had failed, but an even bigger one was in the works.

It was this plan that the Ringmaster was admiring now. This plan had given him the inspiration to take the codename "Ringmaster" in the first place. Everything happened o his command, and it only entered the spotlight when he gave it the go-ahead. So far, the only thing to go wrong was the initial attempt. But that was of little concern.

The Ringmaster had always liked grandiose schemes. Even as the Heartless devoured his world, he had admired their leader for the scale of the plot. It had spanned dozens, even hundreds of worlds and millions of hearts. Such a daring plan deserved to succeed. Sora had been the only anomaly in their precise calculations. The Ringleader snorted. If the leader of the Heartless, whoever it was, had put more effort into exterminating that little bug, they would have finished their designs.

But they had failed. Sora was far too powerful against the forces of darkness. That Keyblade was assurance of victory wherever he went. But he was still human, and humans can't live with a bullet in their brain. Hence the sniper attack. It had failed, but it put Sora in a known location and kept him there. Even a facility as secure as the Doghouse wasn't impermeable.

The Ringleader's train of thought was interrupted by one of his temporary employees walking into his office. "They've captured Harris. He's in interrogation now. What are your orders, sir?"

He chuckled and reclined in his cushioned rolling chair. "Harris can take anything that joke of a cop can dish out. Even if he couldn't under normal circumstances, we've got a trump card. He won't talk. Proceed with the accelerated timetable. Maxwell's unfortunate demise is sure to send the Doghouse into chaos."

His employee wasn't so convinced. "We've gotten reports that men who entered Sora's room haven't left for over an hour. It's hypothesized that he may have escaped, or is escaping now."

"Really? Well, if that's the case, we better get over there. Arrange a Warp Gummi for us. We'll need to get there fast."

"I can have one ready in under an hour."

_10:38 P.M._

Kairi looked wistfully out the window at the dark silhouette of the Doghouse. She longed to walk through the walls and rescue Sora herself. But she knew that he would be released soon. The sniper had been arrested and was being questioned. Soon everything would go back to normal.

At least she hoped it would. She had read about people who had been the targets of assassination attempts. They were changed. They didn't trust anyone anymore. They didn't want to go into a crowd. They didn't want to be alone. Sometimes their actions were based solely on the paranoid delusion that there was still someone out to get them. She desperately hoped Sora wouldn't end up like that.

Riku walked out of the bathroom, having just brushed his teeth before bed. He saw Kairi staring out the window and sat next to her. A small tear welled in her eye. She didn't look away from the window.

"I miss him."

The silver-haired boy sighed and hung his head. "I do too."

Kairi sniffled and looked at him. "What if he's changed when he gets out? What if the Sora we know is gone forever? I don't think I could ever let the old Sora go."

He clasped her hand and squeezed it gently. "Sora's strong. He'll make it through this. I know he will." He wiped a tear from her face, speaking quietly. "Besides, he's been through worse. He gave his heart for you. He'll never let this get to him. If he does, I'll just have to beat him up until he gets back to normal."

She laughed weakly at his humor. "Yeah. You'll just have to. I just… I can't help thinking he's really lost his mind. We'd never get to see the real Sora ever again. It's just too horrible to think about."

Riku was about to respond when she began to sob into his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her in a comforting embrace. Her sobs moved her entire body, shaking the bed. Riku didn't know what to do. He'd only seen her like this once before, and that was earlier this week. On an impulse, he gave her a small kiss on the top of her head.

_Uh oh._

He hadn't meant to do that. Kairi didn't stop sobbing, so he hoped she hadn't noticed. Then she slowly calmed down and looked him in the eyes.

_Don't do it, Kairi._

She tried to resist. She knew what the consequences would be if Sora found out. It would destroy them both. Riku must know that, too. He would never put them in that situation. Not intentionally, at least. Was it an accident? Did he really mean to do that? Nobody just kissed someone they didn't have feelings for; there was always a reason. Seeing her distress, Riku must've been momentarily weakened.

Riku looked back at her, unsure and afraid. He didn't want to ruin the beautiful relationship Sora and Kairi had with each other. He'd die for either one of them, as they would for him. But now something was different. He could feel it. There was a new element between him and Kairi, one that had never existed before.

_Riku, think about what you're doing._

Kairi felt herself drawn to him. He had been the perfect friend in the days since Sora was taken into custody. He'd been there whenever she needed him. She was the one who kept ruining things. Riku didn't deserve the treatment she had given him. He deserved so much more. Ever since he had been swallowed by the darkness, he had always gotten less than he deserved.

_Kairi, don't do this to yourself. Don't do this to him!_

He felt his arm move to the base of her neck and stop. Surely _he_ hadn't been in control of his arm. He'd never do such a thing. Kairi had been the best friend he could ask for, aside from Sora. But this? It wasn't right, nothing about it felt right. Yet he continued. He felt her hair between his fingers. His arm was still moving of its own accord.

_Don't go any further, Riku. You know this isn't right._

She was being torn down the middle. Half of her was being pulled towards him, the other half screamed for her to get away before it was too late. Her indecision kept her rooted to the spot. She felt his hand on the back of her head. He was surprisingly gentle. How was big, tough Riku so gentle? She'd seen him tear apart Heartless with his bare hands. This didn't seem possible.

_If you don't stop this now, you're going to regret it._

Riku felt no resistance as he slowly drew her closer. She seemed to be helping, leaning forward to meet him halfway. In the back of his mind, he imagined Sora seeing them and freezing on the spot, his insides being torn apart by an unseen yet brutal force. It was wrong.

_Last chance, Riku._

She could feel Naminé struggling to stop her. The Nobody wielded considerable influence over Kairi's decisions, but now she was powerless to stop her. She heard Naminé's voice combine with her own in one last, desperate plea.

_No!_

Their eyes closed as they met each other, their lips gently touching. They quickly pulled away from each other, scared of their own actions. Riku felt his hand reach up to wipe another tear off Kairi's cheek. He brushed her hair around her ear as they kissed again, gently yet passionately.

Kairi no longer felt fear. She no longer felt Naminé's screaming protests. All she felt was an overwhelming mix of happiness and despair. She'd succumbed to her feelings, but they filled her heart with a euphoria unlike any she'd felt before. It was impossible for her to stop.

Riku felt the same emotions. He'd betrayed his best friend. But he'd done that before, hadn't he? Everything had turned out for the best. In fact, it had brought them even closer together. He couldn't bring himself to stop.

They remained blissfully ignorant of the minutes ticking by.

_10:40 P.M._

Dennison walked into the observation room adjacent to Interrogation 2. The cop sitting in the chair had a box of doughnuts open on the table next to him. The lieutenant couldn't see what kind they were, but the smell of chocolate couldn't be hidden by the darkness. He walked up to the officer and held out his hand for a handshake.

"Why don't you head home for the night?"

The officer returned his handshake in confusion. "I'd like to, but I'm supposed to be on-" He looked at the palm of his hand, where one million Munny now rested. He looked at Dennison, whose figures were carved from stone. He took the hint.

"Okay, sir. I was just on my way out now. I'll see you tomorrow."

Dennison walked into the interrogation room where Harris was still handcuffed to the chair. With a start, the accused man awoke from his slumber and slurred his words.

"Whuzzat? Whuz goin' on? Wher'z mah loy-urr?"

The lieutenant closed the door behind him and locked it. Harris shook his head to clear the sleepiness from it.

"Hey, what's the big idea? You're not supposed to come back until my lawyer gets here. I'm noticing a distinct lack of lawyers in this general area. Never thought I'd mind that, but then again, these are unusual circumstances."

Dennison didn't respond. Instead, he reached behind him and pulled a large metal implement from his back pocket, where it leaned precariously out.

Harris' initial reaction was panic, but his military training took over. He could cope with torture, illegal though it may be. He'd trained for it when the Destiny Islands military switched from conventional fighting to smaller counterterrorist units. They'd been trained in urban warfare, hand-to-hand combat, and capture evasion and resistance. It had been hell; they'd been drilled in torture resistance for a week.

His sergeants had thrown anything and everything they could think up at him: waterboarding, blunt trauma, electric shock; anything a terrorist cell would do. He had passed the training with flying colors. Even the neural stimulants couldn't crack him. He was sure he could resist this cop's pipe wrench tactics.

He summoned up his reserves of courage. "I see we've disposed with legal precedence."

Dennison's voice was icy cold. "Yes, we have." He threw the table across the room, which hit the wall with an incredible bang. Before Harris had time to process what had happened, he snapped the wrench forward, hitting him in the left shoulder. Harris yelped at the sudden pain.

The lieutenant's anger was getting out of control. "Doesn't feel too good, does it? Maybe that'll teach you not to shoot people there!" He smashed the pipe wrench across Harris' knee. The bones audibly snapped. "What the hell was your motive? Don't tell me money, 'cause there are a billion other ways to get cash!"

Harris squeezed his eyes shut in pain. It was Pain Week all over again. But this time, he had a reason to stay quiet besides the anger of the drill sergeants. He remained quiet. The wrench struck again, this time breaking his right forearm. Dennison was strong for his size. That wrench hurt when it hit.

"Start talking, or this isn't ever gonna end!" The lieutenant swung the implement into Harris' chest, breaking ribs. Still he remained silent. It was infuriating. "Why did you try to kill Sora? _Start talking!_" The metal wrench came down on his collarbone with yet another sickening snap.

Dennison could tell he wasn't making progress, so he tried a different approach. "Maybe I should just end you now. One good swing to the temple. It would be painless. The universe would be rid of yet another scumbag. Or maybe I should take it to your groin. Would you talk then? It would be the most pain I could inflict. And unlike your bones, it wouldn't grow back. Just tell me, Harris! Tell me what I should do next!"

Harris was at an impasse. When he tried to think, the cop smashed his hand with the wrench, sending a whole new wave of pain surging to his brain. If he was permanently disfigured from this torture, he would never be able to be a good father for Shelby. He'd never be able to do anything except sit in his house and rot until he died. The wrench came down on his thigh, not quite breaking his femur.

The torture and indecision continued for another hour. Dennison was rapidly running out of bones to break. Harris was bleeding from multiple wounds all over his body. The room stank of blood. Finally, Dennison threw the wrench at Harris with all his might. It impacted on his sternum and fell to the ground, sticky with blood.

The lieutenant was in a rage now. He ripped off his tie and got right into Harris' face. "WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU TALKING? WHAT HAVE THEY GOT ON YOU?"

Harris summoned up his last reserves of strength to gasp a response.

"They have… my… daughter…"


	13. Caution Flammable Liquid

Chapter 13: Caution – Flammable Liquid

_June 2, 6:23 P.M._

_Six weeks ago._

No matter how Harris tried to justify it, he couldn't find enough merit in killing Sora to bring himself to actually _do_ it. The only option left was to break the whole conspiracy wide open. If he could do that, he'd be able to get away clean while everyone else went to prison for a very long time. Oh, he'd be sentenced to some time himself, but he'd be able to trade his sentence for the names he would be providing. If he had to go into witness protection, then he'd go. At least he would be able to live with himself.

These thoughts strengthened his resolve as he walked to the office building near the center of town. The rifle case slung over his shoulder was not attracting as much attention as he had presumed. That was good; he didn't want anyone sticking their noses in places they didn't belong.

As he entered the lavish building, the interior guard stopped him, hand on his sidearm. "Weapon permit, sir."

Harris pulled out his wallet and gave the guard his laminated weapon-carrying permit. The guard checked the picture against the real Harris and handed it back to him. Harris walked to the front desk and asked for directions to the office he wanted. When he entered, he saw the Ringmaster sitting at his desk, slowly rocking in his office chair and staring at his computer monitor.

"Ah, Harris. Good to see you. I was just about to call you."

Harris set the rifle case against the wall and grasped the zipper. "Were you now? I thought you wanted to stay out of contact until the job was done."

The Ringmaster nodded. "That's true. Which begs the question: why are you here? If we're supposed to stay incommunicado, then _you_ shouldn't be here."

"Speaking of things that shouldn't be…" In a flash, Harris opened the zipper on the rifle bag just a few inches. He drew the weapon and leveled it at the Ringmaster's head. "You shouldn't be doing this. Any of this. If you don't come quietly, I'll pop your head like a balloon. The silencer's on the barrel. There won't be any noise."

The Ringmaster merely smirked at Harris' threat. "I was told this might happen; it's why I wanted to talk to you today. You need more motivation. I decided to give it to you." He turned the monitor for Harris to see. On it was a picture from a surveillance camera. It showed his daughter bound and gagged; her arms tied to a chair. "I've taken the liberty of extracting your daughter from her mother's evil clutches. She'd downstairs now, under heavy guard." He looked straight at Harris. "She won't be harmed unless you decide to renege on our contract."

The barrel of the rifle trembled in Harris' grasp. He lowered the weapon in shock. He could only gasp a reply.

"No… not… not her… You… You keep her out of this."

The Ringmaster gestured at the monitor. "This is all we've done so far. If you keep your end of the deal, this is the worst that will happen to her. If, however, you decide that Sora's life is more valuable to you than hers…" The Ringmaster shrugged. "It's your choice."

Rage boiled up within Harris. He was shaking in anger. "Fine. I'll do it." He pointed a trembling finger at the seated Ringmaster. "But if there's one scratch on her; one little bruise, one _hair_ out of place, I will _personally_ chase you across the universe. I will follow you to the gates of hell and back and I won't stop until I've pulled your heart out through your _throat_."

His expression blank, the Ringmaster pointed at Harris' rifle. "You hold the key to all of this. It's in your hands now." He brusquely stood up and walked past Harris, leaving him standing in the office, tears of despair and anger welling up in his eyes.

_July 16, 11:44 P.M._

Dennison froze, horror gripping him. Was what Harris said the truth? Did they really have his daughter? Who were 'they'? But most importantly to Dennison, what the hell does he do now? He'd tortured a suspect into giving up information. If he tried to use it in court, they'd ask how he got it. When they saw Harris beaten and bruised, the judge and jury would know exactly what had happened. It could end his career. It could put him in prison.

He looked at the battered man in shock. Harris was just barely hanging on to life. Dennison raced to the wall and activated the intercom switch. "I need a medical team in Interrogation 2!"

He ran behind Harris and unlocked the handcuffs. Seconds later, a team of paramedics rushed into the room, gently picking Harris up and laying him on a stretcher. They ran out of the room to the waiting ambulance that had been driven over from the fire department on the same block. He heard sirens blare and fade into the distance.

As he began to walk out, his foot stepped on something hard. He looked down to see the pipe wrench exactly where it was before the paramedics came. It was still stained with Harris' blood. He leaned over and picked it up, hiding it beneath his shirt. The still-wet blood leaked through his shirt, making him appear wounded. He capitalized on it and put his hand to the stain as if he were trying to stop himself from bleeding. The pressure kept the wrench from falling out of his shirt.

When Dennison rounded the corner, the Commissioner came out of his office, absolutely livid. His face was bright red and he was shaking with anger as he stormed towards the lieutenant.

"_Dennison, what the hell did you do?!_"

Dennison was about to speak when he pretended to wince, giving him a few precious seconds to think of a convincing lie. "When I got into the room, he was sitting there just like normal. Forty-five minutes into questioning, he jumps up and attacks me. I was just able to get out of the way. I grabbed the chair and fought back until he was in too much pain to fight. Then I called the med team."

The Commissioner's expression didn't change. "How did he attack you? He's supposed to be handcuffed!"

"Hell if I know, boss. He's ex-Special Forces. I wouldn't be surprised if he hid a lock pick in his sleeve or something. Maybe he's just able to worm out of handcuffs over time. There are a million different ways he could have done it. You can _not_ hold me responsible for this."

Still enraged, the Commissioner continued speaking. "Alright. Alright. Go to the hospital. Get patched up. Then get to the suspect's room and find out what the _hell_ is going on!"

Dennison nodded, incredulous that his lie had worked so well. "Yes sir. I'll get my assistant to drive me there."

_11:56 P.M._

The stairs to the first floor were long and brightly lit. There was no cover for Sora should someone decide to go up the stairs at that exact time. He prayed he'd be lucky enough to avoid any chance encounters with the mercenaries of the Doghouse. If he couldn't, there'd be some very large, very angry men with guns chasing him in just a few seconds. That couldn't end well for the young Keyblade master.

When he reached the bottom, he crept up to the double doors and peeked through the window from the bottom. The lobby was crowded with extra security, put in place after Maxwell's death. If Sora tried to make a break for it, he'd be peppered with rubber bullets before he could take five steps. Again, not a good ending. There had to be another way.

Sora sat down against the closed door and closed his eyes in thought. When he opened them again, he was staring straight at a door labeled WAREHOUSE ACCESS. He silently snuck over to the door and pushed it open. There was another staircase, leading down into darkness. Sora checked over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't been spotted, and then proceeded down the stairs.

When he reached the basement warehouse, he couldn't see a thing. The lights were out and no light came in from the distant ramp. He walked along the wall, running his hand on the concrete wall. He stopped when he felt cold metal under his fingers. The door was unlocked, so he simply pushed in on the handle. Inside, a single red light bulb provided the only illumination. A man sat at the only console in the room. His chair was surrounded by snack cake wrappers. He offered one to the newcomer, not bothering to see who it was.

"Want a snack cake, Murphy?"

"Sure." Sora snatched the cake as the man snapped to look at the unfamiliar voice. He was just able to register surprise when Sora bashed him with the hand guard of the Keyblade.

Sora pulled the unconscious man out of his chair and set him in the corner. Satisfied the DSC employee was sufficiently out of sight, Sora sat at the console, munching on his snack cake. He looked at the dim screen and located the button labeled Warehouse Lights. He clicked on the small icon and watched as the lights gradually began to turn on.

When all the lights were at full brightness, Sora looked through the window into the warehouse. It was massive. It had everything from shipping containers to cardboard boxes. There were large plastic coverings over some things, a huge collection of barrels, and crates in every size. The center aisle was wider than a freeway.

However, the sudden light in the warehouse alerted the perimeter guards, who were switching to the midnight shift. They ran into the enormous subterranean space, rifles at the ready. When they saw Sora at the far end near the control room, they switched to rubber bullets, which gave him enough time to hide in the stacks of crates, barrels, and containers.

The two men noiselessly swept the smaller aisles for any sign of the young Keyblade master. Sora peeked his head out from behind a crate to see them giving hand signals to each other. He crouched behind the stacks of boxes and moved as fast as he could, keeping his head down.

One guard was unknowingly bearing down on Sora, who snuck into a large group of barrels. He was about to slink across the center aisle when he saw a blinking box on one of the barrels. It was suspicious for a second, but he disregarded it when the guard came close again. _Probably just a shipment tracker._

He silently ran across the huge central lane and ducked behind a colorful stack of shipping containers.

_July 17, 12:05 A.M._

Kairi once again lay on her bed, sobbing into the pillow. She'd done some regrettable things before, but she had never knowingly betrayed a friend, much less Sora. Not only that, but she had betrayed him in the only way he couldn't fight against. Even if she sold him out to the Heartless, he'd be able to fight his way out. If he didn't, at least he'd die fighting. But this was impossible to struggle against. Time couldn't be fought. It simply marched on, not caring about the petty concerns of the future.

She wanted to reach back into the past; stop herself before it was too late. She dug up every happy memory of her and Sora, trying to drown her feelings. Nothing worked. In her deep regret, she doubted she would even be able to look at Sora. If he found out about this, especially in his own delicate mental state, he might destroy himself. It was too big a risk. Kairi resolved to bury the memory and never let Sora know about it. It was the least she could do for him.

The Doghouse was lit up brightly outside her window. Every exterior light was shining, covering the compound in a light that rivaled daylight. There were armed Humvees patrolling around the perimeter, and all visitors and shipments were being turned back. The entire place was completely sealed.

Kairi thought about Sora cooped up within its confines. She worried about him more than ever now. If something did happen, and Sora was killed, she'd never get to see him again. The last thing she'd have done before he was killed would be to have cheated on him with his best friend. She tried to make the argument that it was just a kiss, but she knew there was more to it. She had wanted it.

When she realized that, she tried to drown it by blaming Riku for it. He had tempted her. It was his fault. But the more Kairi tried to blame him, the more she realized he was innocent. He hadn't meant for it to turn into anything. It just… happened. That's all there was to it. The most frustrating and infuriating detail was that she couldn't even fully blame herself. If she knew it was her fault, she could come to accept it as her own flaw. But this wasn't just her fault. She couldn't shoulder all the blame for Sora. She had let him down.

She tried to turn to Naminé for consolation. But when she reached deep inside herself, the only feeling she received was fear.

What was Naminé so afraid of?

_12:07 A.M._

Sora felt a wave of fear pass over him. He recognized it as one of Roxas' feelings. He had tended to be smarter than Sora in the past. What did he recognize this time? What did he see that Sora couldn't?

He jumped at a sound behind him. One of the security guards had stepped on a fragment of splintered wood from one of the crates. Sora quickly hid behind another box as the mercenary walked by him, stood, and shouted at his partner.

"I don't see him anywhere. Should we call it in?"

The other guard shouted back in a deep, gravelly tone. "And let the outer guard pukes get the credit for reigning him in? Are you nuts? If we catch him, we'll get promoted and a bonus big enough to buy half this world. If you touch that radio, I swear I'll shoot you where you stand!"

The first mercenary shrugged and walked away. Sora slowly crept away, trying to get in contact with Roxas. He knew something bad was about to happen. Sora needed to know what it was. He could just barely feel Roxas reaching out to Naminé. The emotion he felt was one of despair before he felt Roxas alerting Naminé of the danger.

Wait… they could communicate? How could they do that?

Sora pushed the thought out of his mind as he reached the ramp of the warehouse. He looked back to see the two guards still searching the stacks of crates for him. Making sure to go slowly, he crept up the giant ramp and into the light-saturated grounds of the Doghouse. There were armored trucks zooming around near the perimeter fence, which was topped with barbed wire.

As if that weren't bad enough, Sora looked up to see snipers situated on the roof. The entire complex was under constant surveillance. There was no way to get out without being seen. He had only one idea, and it hinged on the guards being easily distracted and the outer fence being weak enough to be hacked through by the Keyblade. It was a lousy plan, but it was all he had.

Sora drew the Keyblade and focused on a guard in the distance. He hoped the range of his spells was long enough to reach him.

_12:10 A.M._

Dennison cautiously walked into the hospital room. Harris lay inside, most of his body covered in rigid bandages and casts. The doctors had set him up unusually fast. More likely than not the Commissioner had put pressure on them.

But that didn't matter to him. All Dennison was concerned about was getting the information from the suspect. Nothing else was of any importance. Laws, regulations, guidelines… All went out the window when people had to decide what they really cared about.

Harris glanced in his direction. He weakly croaked a simple query.

"Why are you here?"

The lieutenant sat down in an easy chair and hung his head. "I could apologize for my treatment of you, but I doubt you would accept it, nor would it be sufficient to atone for what I did." He inhaled deeply. "But that doesn't change the situation. You shot at Sora for a reason. You told me they had your daughter. I'm here because I need to know who. Who has your daughter?"

The sniper snorted and looked at the ceiling. "It doesn't matter anymore. You caught me. Good job. Sora's still just as dead as if I had cut him down myself. It's only a matter of time now. Speaking of time…" He painfully craned his neck to look at the clock. "He's got less than ten minutes. You'd never make it in time."

Dennison leaned forward. "But we might! The Doghouse has gone on full alert. Maxwell was poisoned a few hours ago. Whoever's doing this gave themselves away. All you need to do is tell us who's doing this and what's going to happen in the next ten minutes."

Harris remained silent. The lieutenant sighed and looked away. "We can put you into witness protection if you're being threatened. As for your daughter… If you know where she's being held, we can get her back. It'll be risky, but is the alternative worth it? You being executed after ten years on Death Row? She needs a father, Harris. You know it as well as I do."

The wounded suspect dismissed the argument. "She's on another world. If you rescue Sora now, it seals her fate. One lives, the other dies. There's no way around it. Believe me; I've looked for one for seven weeks now."

Sighing, the lieutenant slumped back into his chair. "At the very least, you could tell us who's behind all this. Maybe we can still save your daughter. You'd get away with a clear conscience. It's the right thing to do, Harris. Please." Dennison was begging at this point. "Please. Think of his friends. If they don't know, they'll be in agony for the rest of their lives."

Harris snorted again. "Oh, the irony… Fine. Listen closely."

He told him. His eyes bulged and his jaw dropped.

As the lieutenant rushed to leave, Harris called after him.

"Don't let Sora get in any vehicles!"

_12:12 A.M._

Sora waited for the Humvee to pass by him sufficiently. If this was going to work, it would need to be timed perfectly. There was absolutely no room for error. He mentally reviewed the patrol schedule he had observed. Every thirty seconds, a Humvee drove past with a driver, a gunner, and an armed passenger. The snipers on the roof took sixty seconds to sweep the entire side of the compound. And every two minutes, a lone guard on foot ran past. The time to strike was rapidly approaching.

The Humvee rumbled past the ramp. Sora hid behind the guard house at the entrance to the warehouse in which the two guards were still searching. He had thrown a couple of stray rocks into the stacks of containers to keep them occupied. But now he had to concentrate.

The guard was just out of range of Sora's magic. As he walked closer, Sora drew the Keyblade. When the guard came just within range, Sora concentrated on him and whispered a single word.

"_Thunder._"

Bolts of lightning came out of the sky and zapped the poor guard, who fell to the ground. The nearby Humvee pulled over to the convulsing man and the passenger got out to help him. Sora looked up at the snipers, who were concentrating on the place where lightning had struck out of a clear starry sky. They knew something was amiss, but they didn't know what.

At that moment, Sora exploded from his hiding place, running flat out to the compound fence. He estimated it would be twenty seconds of running until he could cut his way out. After ten seconds, he heard a guard shout something. Three seconds later, the dirt around him began exploding with the impacts of stray rubber bullets. He didn't change direction or slow down. The geysers of dirt momentarily stopped as the guards reloaded.

When Sora was three yards from the fence, he covered his eyes with one arm, dove, and slashed through the chain-link fence with the Keyblade. It cut through it as if it were made of string. The sliced metal raked across his skin, cutting through clothing and drawing blood. He rolled over on the ground to see the guards running towards him. He got up, turned, and ran off into the city. He had to make it all the way around the Doghouse to get to the hotel Riku and Kairi were staying in.

_12:15 A.M._

Anton had been dispatched to the underground warehouse to find out where the forklift operator had gone and what became of the shipment he had supposedly unloaded. It had taken him almost twenty minutes to get from his fourth floor barracks to the basement. He cursed the design of the Doghouse out loud. As if anyone would attempt a direct ground assault on this facility. The very idea was ludicrous. He thought the extra outside guards were a waste. His idea was to have them sweep the interior of the building. The only way someone could attack was with the help of an insider.

Of course, his superior had rejected the idea. Apparently Donner Security was immune to traitors because, well, because his superior said so. When Anton had argued, he was thrown out of the room faster than he could say "Trojan Horse." He was then ordered to go on this little housekeeping errand as some form of punishment. The only consolation Anton could take was that his superior's office was on the second floor, which was the hardest to get out of. It would take him nearly a half an hour to exit the building.

He arrived in the basement to find the warehouse lights blazing above him, which was against protocol. Maybe there really was something here. He called into the cavernous space.

"Hey! Anyone here?"

He saw two guards come out of the side aisles and run towards him. "Keep it down, will ya? Sora's in here and we're huntin' 'im." He patted his assault rifle. "Good ol' rubber bullets. Knock out a horse at fifty yards."

Anton nodded and quickly changed the subject. "Where is the shipment that came in early yesterday morning? And where's the forklift operator?"

"I 'unno. Maybe he ditched and went for a drink. Met a nice girl and had some fun. He's been known to do that. S'miracle we haven't cut 'im loose yet."

Rolling his eyes, Anton continued. "Where's the shipment he unloaded?"

The mercenary giggled childishly. "Probably in some 'partment on Seventh. Ha, I'm just kiddin'. It's the barrels over there, by them big shippin' containers."

Anton ran over to the barrels. They weren't tied together in accordance with DSC protocol. As he walked around the barrels, he noted some unusual markings on them. His interest was piqued when he saw a barrel labeled "Caution – Flammable Liquid". That wasn't supposed to be put in the warehouse. All flammable liquids were supposed to the unloaded at the pumping station near the East Wing.

As he investigated further, he saw some barrels labeled "Ammonium Nitrate" with the universal explosives symbol etched on them in dull yellow paint. His eyes widened. Things just went from weird to bad.

He reached the back quarter of the shipment when he stopped dead in his tracks. There, taped to one of the barrels, was a black box with a blinking red LED. There was only one thing it could be.

_Oh hell._

_12:19 A.M._

The Ringmaster finished putting on the final touches to his suit and turned to the mirror hanging in the garage. Oh yes. Even a forty-three-year-old looked good in this stuff. It was like magic. He was still admiring himself when one of his men burst into the garage, his face contorted by panic. He ran up to the Ringmaster, who was about to attempt to calm him down when the young man began talking at an incredible rate.

"Our insider at DSC says that Sora has escaped his room! He's heading out of the complex at this very moment! What do we do, sir?"

That was disturbing news indeed. But it meant he'd get to use his really cool backup plan. "Alright. We've planned for this. Actually, I like this plan better. It's so much more… _diabolical_. See?" He spun in a circle for the young man. "Doesn't this look just awesome?"

He saw the man's expression and knew that the young man undoubtedly thought he was crazy. He addressed those fears. "Don't worry; I'll set things in motion right about… now."

He pulled a small remote with a button and a switch. They both had clear plastic covers over them. He lifted the cover on the switch labeled SAFETY and flipped it to the OFF position. He then lifted the cover on the big red button. It was labeled DETONATE.

The button was pushed. He waited for the sound.

_12:20 A.M._

Kairi had resumed sobbing into her pillow. It seemed her world was crashing down around her. That was when the windows to the hotel room exploded.

She screamed as a wave of heat passed through the room. A colossal noise surrounded her, blocking out all other sound. The windows lit up with orange light. As she picked herself up, she looked out the window. A fireball was rising from the lower floors of the Doghouse. The closest end of the facility had collapsed into the ground. She looked in horror at the window to Sora's room. A fire raged inside.

Riku burst from the bathroom to see what had happened. When he reached the window, his jaw dropped at the devastation he saw. The entire North Wing had sunk into the ground and was ablaze. There was no way anyone could escape. Perimeter guards were running around, trying to put out the fires on their clothing. Humvees swerved and rolled as they avoided flaming debris and guards.

They looked out the window, looked at each other, and bolted for the stairs. Hotel guests were running through the halls screaming and panicking. Nobody yet knew what had happened.

The two teens entered the stairwell and ran to the ground floor.

_12:22 A.M._

The Stenyr Fleet was only 120 miles offshore at the time the Doghouse was bombed. Within two minutes of the explosion, jet fighters were being scrambled for takeoff. The flights just taking off were re-routed to Comberth Harbor to fly cover for what could possibly be a hostile nation's first strike. The decks of the aircraft carriers teemed with personnel trying to get as many aircraft in the air as possible.

The first flights reached Comberth Harbor in forty-five seconds. The pilots saw the smoke coming from the Doghouse and radioed back their report: Major facility hit; potential hostile nation attack, potential terrorist attack. In minutes the skies above the city swarmed with fighters trying to find enemy aircraft.

On the ground, policemen nearby had their hands full trying to get people away from the blast site. The backup units weren't going to arrive for at least ten more minutes. So when a CHPD truck pulled up and unloaded a group of body-armored men, they didn't ask any questions. They were just glad for the help.

Riku and Kairi had made their way to the ground floor and pushed their way through the thin police barrier in front of them. They called out for Sora in vain. He was nowhere in sight.

Sora had, in fact, been passing by the middle of the East Wing when the diesel-fuel and ammonium-nitrate bomb had gone off. The heat had almost seared his skin. When the heat had subsided enough to see, the entire North Wing had sunken into the warehouse below. He gathered himself again and ran towards the hotel that Riku and Kairi were staying in. He noted with dismay that the windows below the fifteenth floor had been blown out in the explosion.

The three teens all ran towards the northeast corner of the complex. When they saw each other, they ran towards each other with renewed vigor. Sora and Kairi embraced each other in relief that the other was still alive, sane, and mostly uninjured. Riku was about to give Sora his own hug when a policeman requested his assistance in moving a badly burned passer-by out of the way. He could wait to be reunited to save a man's life.

In all the chaos, Sora and Kairi never broke their embrace. Fire trucks and more police arrived and parked around them. They were unaware of the outside world. At that moment, the only things that existed were themselves. They both cried tears of joy at their reunification.

However, the firemen had to run a myriad of hoses between their trucks, so a police officer came to Sora and Kairi and escorted them to a CHPD truck. He loaded them into the back and got in the driver's seat. The armored cop in the passenger seat clapped and turned to the driver. "Let's get them outta here! Whoo-ee!"

The driver calmly reached to his side, drawing a pistol. He shot the passenger twice in the neck, who slumped onto the dashboard in front of him. Kairi screamed at the noise. Sora ran to the small window between the rear space and the driver's cab. The driver threw something into the rear and closed the window. Sora looked at the small cylindrical object as it began to vent a gas into the truck. He drew the Keyblade and was about to unlock the doors when he felt a blackness creep in around his vision and weaken his muscles. He collapsed to the floor alongside Kairi.

_12:47 A.M._

Kairi awoke tied to a chair. She looked to her right and saw Sora waking up, also tied to a chair. They were in an empty room with a large glass window looking over the city. From her vantage point, she could see the smoking ruins of the Doghouse in the distance. Flames from jet engines peppered the sky. The truck driver stood in front of her, pistol in hand, face obscured by a polarized helmet faceplate. He began to speak to Sora.

"Ah, Sora. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Ringmaster. Also allow me to say that is nice to meet you face-to-face at last. Although it hasn't been so long since the last time I saw you. Just a few weeks, really. But saying that sounds so evil-genius I couldn't restrain myself. Forgive me."

Kairi couldn't believe what she was hearing. Not the words so much as the voice. It was familiar. _Maddeningly_ familiar. She had heard that voice many times. The last she heard it was when she saw him back home.

_Oh God, no._

The black-clad policeman removed his helmet. Both teens stared at him in utter shock. Kairi was the first to put their disbelief into words.

"Dad!?"


	14. Sins of the Father

Chapter 14: Sins of the Father

_July 17, 12:48 A.M._

Kairi's father turned to look at her. "Yes, Kairi. It's me. Good ol' Dad."

She sat in stunned silence. This couldn't be. It was a dream. She was still in the back of the police van, passed out from the gas grenade. Her father would never do anything like this. It was unthinkable. Absolutely unthinkable.

"No… no, it's not… It can't be you…"

Her father reached behind him for something from his back pocket as he began to speak again. "Ah, but it can. Seeing as I'm here right now, it would be foolish to deny that it most certainly is me." He drew a syringe out from behind him and walked towards the hog-tied girl. "Now, as much as I'd like to sit down and explain everything to you, Sora and I need to have a private chat. So it's time for you to stop listening."

He tapped the syringe twice before injecting it into Kairi's struggling neck. Within seconds, her movements slowed. Her eyes closed and her head dropped. Sora watched in horror as the chemical permeated Kairi's bloodstream. When the Ringmaster picked up her chair with a grunt, Sora spoke, his voice trembling with rage.

"What did you do to her? What was in that syringe? I swear, if you've killed her…"

Chuckling, the Ringmaster opened one of the doors in the room and put Kairi's chair inside the small closet-like space. "Relax. It's just a sedative. She'll wake up in a few hours with no memory of this incident. She'll be happy as a clam. That is, until, she receives the _unfortunate_ news." He frowned and shook his head. "It appears that terrorists kidnapped Sora and killed him to make a point. So tragic." He gave a false sniffle. "He was so young."

Sora continued staring at him in a mixture of rage and disbelief. "How can you justify this? I've given you no reason to do anything! I went across the universe looking for your daughter! If anything, you should be throwing me a party, not kidnapping me!"

Kairi's father pulled another chair out from behind Sora and sat down in front of him. "I have the best justification there is: I'm doing this to save my life and the lives of my family. Don't believe me? Then listen up!" He swiftly stood up from his chair, knocking it over. "The police won't be able to track you here for a few hours. That means we've got until then for story time."

"Please, make yourself comfortable, because I've got quite the tale to tell." He started pacing in front of Sora. "Undoubtedly you're wondering just how connected I am to this whole scheme. Well, let me tell you something: I am the mastermind of everything. You want to know why your parade was on the eighth and not the sixth? I manipulated it. It gave me time to send my man to the Hotel Regal for the perfect shot. Why were you put in Donner Security Consultants' secure facility? Because I suggested it to the King. He wanted to get you off of this world as fast as possible. I persuaded him that the risk of having you on a Gummi Ship that was vulnerable to attack in deep space was simply too great."

"Why did the Doghouse explode? I planted a bomb in the warehouse. Why was Dennison put in charge of this case? Well, I didn't have anything to do with that." He chuckled at his own humor. "But most everything else was my doing. Anton? My suggestion. A friendly face every morning helped you stay sane enough to not consider escape until the latest possible time."

The Ringmaster leaned over to pick up his chair. He set it on the concrete floor with a loud bang. "Anton wasn't my man inside DSC, but he certainly provided invaluable services, albeit unwittingly. I got lucky on some other counts. How did I find out the name of your Head of Security?" A smile slowly spread over the Ringmaster's face. "You yourself provided that information. I gotta admit; Morse code was a good idea. I still don't know how you managed to secure yourself a flashlight."

Throughout this monologue, Sora could do nothing more than watch and listen. Kairi's father saw the disbelieving look on Sora's face and sat down in the metal chair he had recently righted. "I bet you're wondering how I managed everything." He looked as if he were about to break into a fit of giggles. "Well, I can tell you. We've got plenty of time."

He leaned closer to Sora. "No doubt you remember that I'm the mayor of our city. It's the biggest one on the Destiny Islands, except for the capitol. That's the only way I was able to do half the things I did. The sum paid to your would-be assassin was four hundred million bogus Munny. The only way I was able to get that kind of money was from the city coffers, which I have kept swimming in money, even through the toughest of times."

"I had to launder the money, so I wrote off the expenses as government projects that went over-budget. Nobody asks questions when a government project goes over-budget." He paused and looked away thoughtfully. "I wonder if that's a reflection on me as Mayor. Naw, it's not like I'm the one handing out money to the workers every day. It's just what happens."

"Anyway, I had to find a good marksman to take the vital shot. He had to be in dire straits, too; otherwise he'd never accept my generous offer. So imagine my surprise when one of the first men I find was a sniper in our military for years and years. An ex-Special Forces guy who had a nasty divorce, no custody of his own child, and was three alimony payments from being forced to sell a kidney for extra money. Well, he snapped up my offer within an hour."

"Over the next few months, I realized that he may not be as willing to kill you as I had originally expected. I began coming up with backup plans. I had to hire dozens of people from criminal underworlds and other shady sources. Everyone was paid handsomely. Counterfeit Munny, though. I had to hire someone to hack into fifty separate bank accounts. The really ironic thing is that he was paid in his own fake cash!"

The mayor smiled and shook his head. "The conspiracy I had created against you ran deeper than anyone in that incompetent police department ever _imagined_. I must have had almost a hundred separate people on my side. Every one of them wanted to see you dead. Nothing personal, though. They were promised a huge bonus if the whole plot worked. Looks like they'll get a nice fat check in the mail sometime soon."

Sora listened to the rambling mayor, thinking about what he said. Did he really have the resources to pull off such a grand scheme? It seemed like too much for one man to have pulled together all by himself. Surely he had outside help.

"You're… going to kill me here?"

"Well, that's the plan. But we've got plenty of time, and I want to tell you a story."

_12:48 A.M._

_The same time._

Riku pressed through the crowd gathered around the flaming wreckage of the North Wing. He hadn't seen Sora or Kairi since he helped load a badly injured man into an ambulance. They should have been actively looking for him. It had been nearly a half an hour since the last he saw them; he'd have run into them by now. The fact that they were nowhere to be seen was troubling. It meant something was awry.

He pushed his way through the wall of people and ran to the nearest police car, where an officer and a man he recognized from earlier were pointing at a map of the city laid out on the hood of the car and discussing something. He remembered the on in the red-stained dress shirt as the lieutenant in charge of the investigation.

Running towards the car, he yelled to get their attention. "Hey! Over here! I need someone's help!"

The two policemen looked up at him. The lieutenant immediately recognized him. "Riku! Where have you been? Have you seen Sora or Kairi?"

Riku felt his heart sink. "I was gonna ask you the same thing. I haven't seen them for almost thirty minutes. Did you take them to the station?"

Dennison was about to reply when the other officer cut him off. "I thought I saw them get into an armored truck about twenty minutes ago. Haven't seen them since."

Hearing this, Dennison smashed his fist on the hood of the cruiser. "Dammit! I didn't order a pickup for them! Where'd you see it go?"

"Downtown. Financial district, I think."

"Oh, hell. It'll take hours to search the entire financial district, let alone all of downtown." The lieutenant picked up the radio and pushed the talk button. "Attention all units: Be on the lookout for a CHPD armored truck driving through downtown. It is a fake and should be pursued at all costs. You are authorized to use full application of force to stop it. Do not, I repeat, do _not_ destroy it. Precious cargo onboard."

He set the radio down and turned to Riku. "Do you have any method of communication with him? Cell phone? Radio? Keyblade telepathy?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at his last suggestion. Dennison sighed and looked away. "Hell, I don't know what you can do. I just need to know if you can get in contact with him. Do you have anything?"

Shaking his head, the silver-haired teen replied in a despondent tone. "No. The DSC mercenaries broke his cell phone as soon as he left the hospital. The only way we've stayed in contact was Morse code. But that won't be too helpful now, will it?"

As the lieutenant shook his head, the gears in Riku's head started turning. _Donner Security broke his phone, the jerks. Donner broke his phone. Donner. Donner. Did Sora mention something about Donner? A trick they had? No, it wasn't "trick", it had an –er at the end of it. Tricker? No. Maybe…_

A light bulb lit up in his mind. "That's it! Donner planted a tracker on him during his surgery! We can use that to find his location! The _tracker_!"

Dennison slowly lifted his head to look straight into Riku's eyes. "They planted a tracker on him? Are you sure? _Absolutely_ sure?" Riku nodded. "Alright then. We just need to find the broadcast frequency it's using. After that, we'll send every policeman in this city to go get him back. Sergeant!" He looked at the other officer. "Get on the horn to Fourth Precinct. Ask for my assistant. I'll do the rest."

"Yes, sir. I'll patch them through to your mobile radio."

_12:52 A.M._

Sora could only listen as Kairi's father ranted about his plot. He revealed every detail, every small bit of planning he put into his pet project for the last year. The sheer amount of planning and precision sent chills up his spine.

The mayor continued his story. "Harris was supposed to take you out with a single perfect shot. What he didn't count on was the warp on the Gummi Ship screwing with his scope. I should have warned him about that, but it's no matter now." He sighed and shook his head. "It would have been perfect, too. I calculated the angle of elevation he'd need to be at to make his shot perfectly perpendicular to the windshield. You'd need to be exactly one hundred and twenty-five yards away for it to work. If the scope hadn't been warped, you'd have been dead before anyone knew what was happening."

He laughed as he remembered that he hadn't actually done the calculation himself. He had hired someone to do it for him. As an ironic thought crossed his mind, he smiled and spoke again. "I should have had Kairi do the math and then check it myself. Wouldn't that have been wonderfully ironic? Unwittingly doing the vital math in a plot to kill your boyfriend. It doesn't get any more ironic than that!" He tilted his head and looked away thoughtfully. "Well, maybe doing the math in a plot to have _you_ killed. But Kairi's _way_ better at math than you. You'd mess everything up, even with simple trigonometry."

The casual tone in which the mayor was discussing his master plan unnerved Sora. He had expected a small speech ending in "Any last words?" before he was shot or knifed or thrown out of a window. This was just too weird. Not to mention that the man was stating outright that Sora wouldn't have been able to do the math required to get himself shot in the head. That was the cherry on top of the weirdness sundae.

Still smiling at the irony, the Ringmaster continued. "When you were about to be moved, I called the King and used my influence as Mayor and the father of a close personal friend to convince him that Donner Security Consultants was the best place for you to be kept. I knew far in advance that you'd be kept in the North Wing. That's right above the far end of the underground warehouse they have there. I sent a diesel and fertilizer bomb to them early yesterday morning. I had hoped you'd still be there when it was time to detonate."

He laughed through gritted teeth. "But you weren't! Because you… You cheat death everywhere you go. That bullet would still have killed a normal person. If my _idiotic_ driver hadn't swerved the car, the second bullet would've ended you right there. Then, when I put two hundred drums of diesel and fertilizer beneath you, you manage to worm your way past the incompetent guards that company employs. I'm telling you; capitalizing on an opportunity to kill you is way harder than it seems!"

The smile vanished from his face. "Then there's that annoying fly Dennison. He's been keeping a close eye on you and the people around you. I was forced to lay low until he ran off to some other world to chase down Harris' rifle. Fat lotta good that did him, huh? In fact, all of his efforts were in vain. I've still got you here. There's nothing they can do about it."

Sora couldn't take this anymore. Hearing the inner workings of a plan to have him eliminated was just too much. There was one detail that Kairi's dad had glossed over, most likely intentionally. Sora would have to ask before it was too late.

_12:52 A.M._

_The same time._

"Okay, get the tech room to scan local radio frequencies for a small transmitter-only beacon. It's likely in the 450 megahertz to 2.1 gigahertz range. Yeah, cellular signal. Somewhere in there. Alright. Tell me as soon as you get something. Over."

Dennison clipped his radio to his belt and sighed. "That's all we can do for now, Riku. We just gotta wait and hope for the best."

The silver-haired boy hung his head. "There's nothing more we can try? Can we get a DSC employee to tell us the frequency?"

"All the people working with Sora were in the North Wing." The pair looked at the Doghouse, which was missing the northern part. "I don't think anyone could survive a blast like that. We're on our own for now."

Riku buried his face in his hands. "This is just unreal. How… how could this happen? How did someone send a _bomb _into one of the most heavily guarded buildings on this entire world? It just doesn't seem possible!"

A pair of jets roared over the street, drowning out the sound from the burning Doghouse. The only thing visible was two dim patches of flame from the engines. The aircraft arced up into the sky to be joined by another trio, creating a flying V formation. Once the noise from the combined fighters faded, a crackle was audible from Dennison's radio. He picked it up, hoping for a response from his assistant. When it turned out to be the jets overhead communicating, he slowly clipped it to his belt again.

A few seconds later, the radio crackled again as a second pair of jets flew over. Dennison initially ignored it, expecting it to be more military transmissions. However, the unmistakable voice of his assistant immediately reached his ear. He ripped the radio from its clip and brought it in front of his face. "Repeat that last. Over."

"I said, 'We've got something, sir.' That's when you decided to listen to-"

"Just tell me what it is!"

He could hear his assistant talking to someone in the background. There was a rustle of static as he came back on the line. "We've found a transmitter that matches the description you gave us. It's in the unfinished Kaiser building on the corner of 82nd and 101st Streets. Frequency of 750 megahertz. Be advised: it is far above ground level. You may need to take a tac-assault team. Over."

Riku and Dennison looked at each other with a mixture of disbelief and hope. Was this it? Would it finally be over? The lieutenant was barely able to push the talk button. "Copy that. Over and out."

He looked back at Riku, who snapped out of his revile and banged on the hood of the car. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go get him!"

Dennison nodded and yelled over to an armored policeman, who also nodded as he rounded up his team and they piled into a black van labeled CH SWAT. The two vehicles sped off in the direction of the radio signal.

_12:58 A.M._

Kairi's father was about to speak about the complexity of smuggling explosive compounds when Sora shouted at him.

"Why? Why did you try to kill me? What did I do to you?"

The mayor sighed. He had a whole plan to lead up to a grand reveal, but he couldn't very well ignore a direct question. Not without appearing to have rehearsed his whole speech, in which he took pride for it being all made up on the spot, with the exception of the lead-up to the reveal. He looked directly at Sora.

"You were working on the Heartless World Destruction Investigation, were you not?"

Sora nodded, uncertainty in his voice. "Yes…"

"You were trying to discover the way in which the Heartless took over worlds. Well, I'll reveal the mystery: it was almost always betrayal. Somebody would have a deep-seated grudge against their world or an insatiable thirst for power. The darkness would persuade them into revealing the heart of the world. Without those traitors, the Heartless would have been stuck in Xehanort's laboratory until it crumbled around them."

"In what will undoubtedly be an old piece of trivia for you, Riku was the one to originally expose the Destiny Islands. But he kept his heart concealed for years. Only days before the invasion of the Heartless did he truly open himself to darkness. You, of course, know the rest."

"But Riku didn't want to see his world fall, nor did he want power. He wanted an escape. He sought a gate to cross over to another world and then have nothing more to do with darkness. I, however, wanted more."

Kairi's father sat down in his chair. "When I first adopted Kairi, my wife and I could tell there was something special about her. We couldn't put our finger on it, but she was unique. And I don't mean it like 'Everyone's Unique'; I mean she was _special_. She could do no wrong. We slowly came to realize that the light in her heart was unlike any other we had seen before. It gave her strength. I wanted strength."

"When I found out that Riku was about to betray the world, I used the door to our world to broker a deal: I would be saved, along with the rest of my family. In exchange, I'd tell them about the special girl with the strongest heart I'd ever seen. The witch Maleficent was uninterested until I mentioned her name. _Kairi_. It triggered a reaction within the old hag. She immediately accepted my offer. Sure enough, the Heartless show up a few hours later. My family and I were suddenly transported to some backwater world you've never heard of; someplace the Heartless wouldn't even bother with."

"Now, I don't know about the competence of the so-called 'scientists' on this Investigation, but sooner or later they'd come across the secret; it's just too obvious to hide. When they did, the first world they'd look at would be the Keybearer's home world. What would they have done to me? What would _you_ have done to me? I'll tell you: you'd have torn me apart. Literally. I can see it in your eyes. It's what you want to do right now."

The Ringmaster's expression changed to one of self-pity. "I couldn't let that happen. I thought long and hard about how I would stop this Investigation. Then it hit me: if they don't have access to the Keybearer, they won't be able to conduct the necessary experiments. They'll be gutted. Completely lost. Even Riku's Keyblade wouldn't be enough. They'd have to disband, and I'd get away clean."

He looked into Sora's eyes. "So you see? It wasn't malicious; it wasn't out of hatred. It was an act of desperation. I couldn't allow myself to be destroyed like that."

Sora couldn't believe what he was hearing. The absolute selfishness of it all was staggering. He was overcome by anger. This couldn't be; it was too terrible to be an act of self-preservation. The very thought sickened Sora. It was simply vile.

"How could you make that decision so easily? Is my life really that worthless to you?"

The mayor didn't budge. "When it's your life or mine, I'm always gonna pick mine. What good does it do me to have you alive if I'm not around to see it? You'd make the _exact_ same decision. You know it."

The spiky-haired boy was furious now. "I would never! I sacrificed my heart to save Kairi! I stared death in the face more times than you could count! I went _past _the edge of the abyss to rescue my friends from certain destruction! Don't you _dare_ say I'd make the same decision as you, because I've already made it a thousand times before!"

A small smirk played across the Ringmaster's face. "And yet you sit tied to a chair while I'm getting ready to end your life. Maybe you made the wrong decision."

_12:58 A.M._

_The same time._

By now, the convoy of police vehicles was twenty strong. They didn't dare put on their lights or sirens for fear of early detection, which might prompt the kidnapper to kill Sora early and escape. Luckily, the financial district was fairly clear at this time of night. The only time the lights were used was to get the stoplights to turn to green for them. Even then, the lights were on for less than two seconds.

Dennison and Riku led the way. The lieutenant had offered Riku body armor, but he declined, saying it would weigh him down too much. The teen had insisted on being part of the assault team to retrieve Sora. He knew the risks; he knew the team's signals and methods. He would be a valuable addition to an already crack team.

The twenty-vehicle convoy pulled up to the mostly-finished Kaiser building. The SWAT teams rapidly unloaded and ran for the stairs. The location of Sora's beacon was discovered to be on the eightieth floor. Luckily for the assault teams, the elevators had just been certified three days ago. Two teams would ride up, two more would make the grueling climb up eighty flights of stairs in sixty pounds of armor and equipment.

Riku's light clothing stuck out against the rest of the team's matte-black uniforms and armor. He had his Keyblade drawn, ready to attack as soon as the elevator doors opened. An officer handed him a gray steel tube with something inside. Riku read the stenciled writing on the side and understood. This would certainly help.

_1:02 A.M._

The mayor pulled a handgun from under his multi-pocketed vest. Seeing it, Sora sighed. "So this is it? You're going to kill me with a bullet? Completely helpless?"

Chuckling, the mayor leaned over into Sora's face. "No. I've got something a little more dramatic planned for you." He turned and aimed at the plate-glass window, firing three shots. The window shattered and fell outward. There was a rush of wind as the pressure between the building and the air equalized.

Kairi's father took out a knife and began cutting the ropes that attached Sora to the chair. Unfortunately for the Keyblade master, he was still hog-tied, leaving him no room for movement. The mayor pulled him up out of his chair and led him to the edge. Sora looked down; it was eighty stories to the ground. He was going to be pushed out the window.

The Ringmaster put both hands on the back of Sora's shoulders and whispered in his ear.

"Sora means _sky_, does it not? People say the sky only meets the ground at the horizon. Well, I'm prepared to prove them wrong."

Sora's heart raced. His hands were tied in fists; he couldn't summon the Keyblade. The knots were solid and the rope wasn't frayed. Escape seemed impossible.

His heart skipped a beat when the Ringmaster whispered in his ear a final time. "Any last words, Sora?"

_1:02_

_The same time._

Riku led the team to the location of the tracker. There was a closed door in front of them. One of the team members leaned against the wall adjacent to the door and put his hand on the handle. The leader pointed to the steel tube Riku held, then at the door. The man next to the door held up five fingers. "_On my count,_" he whispered.

_Five._ Riku held the tube tightly.

_Four._ The team prepared to enter the room, guns level.

_Three. _Riku grasped the pin on the tube.

_Two._ The man at the door began to turn the handle.

_One._ Riku pulled the pin.

_Zero._ The man opened the door. Riku threw the steel tube inside, sans pin. The man slammed the door shut and covered his ears, as did everyone else. There was a pause, then a colossal BANG as the stun grenade exploded in the room. The man at the door swung the door open. Riku sprinted inside, followed by the rest of the team.

The first thing Riku saw was Sora on the edge of the floor, about to fall. Riku swung the Keyblade at the man behind Sora, who was cringing from the pain in his ears. He crumpled to the floor, skidding from the force of the blow. Riku turned to see Sora teetering on the edge. The friends looked at each other. Sora lost his balance, then fell.

Time slowed to a crawl for Riku. He saw Sora slowly falling from the ledge. The team was immobile, watching in horror. Riku dropped the Keyblade and dove towards the window. Sora fell further. Riku reached as far as he could. He felt his arm extending farther than it ever should. His fingers brushed against Sora's back. Nothing. As Sora fell further, he found a grip on the hood of Sora's shirt. He clasped it as tightly as he could.

He looked down to see Sora dangling by his hood. But Riku felt himself slipping. He called to the SWAT team.

"A little help here!"

The team sprang into action, diving on top of Riku's legs, stopping him instantly. They pulled the two boys up over the ledge and cut Sora loose. When Sora regained his breath, he pointed to another door and said "There."

The SWAT team opened the door to find the sedated Kairi tied to another chair. Within minutes, they had cut her loose and administered a wake-up stimulant. She regained consciousness slowly. The first thing she saw was the smiling faces of her two best friends.

_3:22 A.M._

Kairi was still shocked by the discovery that her father was behind everything, but she found more joy in seeing Sora again than sadness in knowing the truth about her dad. The lieutenant had offered to let her see him again, but she declined. She wanted to spend her time with Sora now.

The threesome was back at the police station, sitting in a waiting room under heavy guard. Eventually a policeman came into the room and handed them all Gummi Ship tickets to the Destiny Islands Gummi Hangar. They were escorted out of the building and taken in an armed escort to their ship, which was a private charter.

When they boarded, they were able to relax together for the first time in ten days. Kairi was about to fall asleep when she heard Sora exhale deeply and say the one thing she wanted to hear.

"Let's go home. Together."


	15. Epilogue: High Tide at Midnight

Epilogue: High Tide at Midnight

_July 17, 3:45 A.M._

The warp drive on the Gummi Ship emitted a quiet hum as it powered up. Kairi could feel the vibrations as it reached critical charge. She looked out of the window to see Comberth Harbor shrinking to a speck on the world's surface. It would not soon be missed by the three friends.

Over the past two weeks, the teens had been tested in some of the most brutal ways possible. Kairi felt a deep, piercing regret at having failed her test, even if it was only for a moment at the most difficult stage. She wanted to come clean to Sora; to beg his forgiveness. Her heart was being twisted and tortured by her lack of ability to tell him. If she said anything to him, he might collapse on himself. Kairi's love was as vital to him as his own pulse. He wouldn't be able to survive his beating heart betraying him; nor could he stomach Kairi's betrayal.

The paralysis with which Kairi was struck almost brought her to tears. Doing nothing seemed the best course of action, but then she'd be living a lie. If she said anything, their love would be destroyed. Neither option was acceptable. What had Riku been saying lately? "If you're running out of options, you're not thinking hard enough." That's it. She needed to think more.

The more she thought, the more she resolved to stay quiet. She was tough enough. Eventually, this whole dilemma would be a distant memory; one upon which she could look with no regret or sadness. It would be difficult, but not impossible. How difficult could it be, though? She'd already survived two major Heartless offensives and being kidnapped by both Xehanort and Organization XIII. This would be nothing in comparison.

Motes of light swarmed around the Gummi Ship, and it vanished seconds later.

_3:52 A.M._

Dennison stood above the unconscious man. The force of Riku's blow had knocked him out cold for the better part of three hours. There was a mark where the blade's broadside had impacted the side of the man's head. It was incredible that he was still alive.

The door opened, and the Commissioner entered the room surrounded by a squad of armored guards. He strolled up next to Dennison and examined the Ringmaster's unconscious form. The lieutenant was about to speak when the Commissioner's dull voice cut him off.

"Dennison, what am I going to do with you?"

The lieutenant turned his head and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, sir?"

Sighing, the Commissioner shook his head. "I asked you to interrogate the suspect. We have very strict protocols for interrogation. You threw them all right out the window. Now, I can excuse some bending of the rules in desperate situations. But _torture?_ It's simply out of the question!"

Dennison had expected the Commissioner to figure this out eventually. He had a prepared counterargument ready. "My methods saved Sora's life and the reputation of this city. _Your_ reputation. What would you have done if Sora had died on your watch? The mayor would chase you out of town right before he himself got run off. I'm responsible for one of the greatest moments in our history!"

The Commissioner was becoming visibly angry. His voice gained a sharp edge to it. "Your _methods_ nearly cost that man Harris his life. Had he talked thirty seconds later, he'd have died on the ambulance. Did you even try using other methods before going straight to beating him with a pipe wrench? You could have offered immunity and protection for him and his daughter in exchange for information. But you went rogue and decided to break almost every bone in his body. The only reason he may ever walk again is his military training!"

Having no response ready, Dennison could only listen as the Commissioner continued. "Harris accepted witness protection for himself and his daughter not fifteen minutes ago. The Marshals couldn't even finish explaining it before he jumped at the opportunity. With the mayor out of commission, the entire conspiracy fell apart. Destiny Islands Special Forces secured his daughter thirty minutes ago with the intelligence we supplied them." He jabbed Dennison in the chest with his index finger. "Doesn't that sound like something you should have done a while ago?"

"Sir, I simply didn't have time to-"

"I don't want to hear it, Dennison. You're under arrest for inhumane treatment of a prisoner." The Commissioner turned to his escorts. "Cuff him and take him to Fourth Precinct. Put him in Holding. Now." The guards quickly moved to handcuff a stunned Dennison, who was led out of the room.

The Commissioner watched the once-promising young man walk out of the room with three black-clad officers surrounding him. As the door closed, the Commissioner squatted beside the Ringmaster, who was still unconscious. He shook his head and quietly spoke to the man. "It's too bad, really. He was a good cop. Damn shame to see him end up like this."

He chuckled and crossed his arms. "But what he's got coming is nothing compared to what we've got in store for _you_, my friend. Just thinking about the punishment that awaits you…" He shivered at the very thought. "My good man, I don't envy you in the slightest."

_4:08 A.M._

Harris looked over the file the Marshals had given him. It contained the details on the new identities he and his daughter would assume. His new name was Michael Adamski, and his daughter was Rebecca Marie Adamski. They would be living on a world mostly covered by ocean with a small house on the beach. He would get a monthly stipend from the Witness Protection Program (which would be cleverly disguised as payout from a long-term government bond) and the house was free.

Better still, all charges had been dropped in light of the fact that he was acting under duress and had supplied information. Everything was _finally_ going right. His daughter would initially resist the change, but Harris understood. She took after her father.

His trip would begin within the hour. First, he would be transported to the Gummi Hangar in one of three identical convoys to throw off any vengeful conspirators. Then he would board a private Gummi Ship and warp to several random locations before making the final jump to his new home. There, he could relax and heal for as long as he needed to.

If his jaw wasn't broken, he'd have smiled. This was pretty much how he intended for this whole thing to end, with the exception of being beaten like a piñata for an hour. He sighed. A small price to pay to save a life.

_2:13_

_Local time._

The people of the Destiny Islands wanted to see the trio return from their ordeal, but everyone agreed that another public parade would not be an especially good idea. The three friends had been airlifted to their homes, which were surrounded by riot police trying to hold back the jubilant throngs of people. Sora had been dropped last, in hopes that the crowd would follow the helicopter around and eventually give up from exhaustion.

However, the people were more energetic than had been predicted, so Sora's return was a well-attended event. His only acknowledgement of the crowd was a quick wave before he walked in through his front door to his waiting parents. Seeing their son alive and mostly unharmed, they wept and embraced him as only parents can. After their tearful embrace was broken, Sora sniffled and sat down in the nearest chair. Exhaling deeply, he spoke in an emotionless monotone.

"I need to see Kairi. Alone. Can you get me to the island quietly?"

His parents nodded, desperately trying to hold back their tears. A police officer knocked at the door. Sora watched through a window as his parents nodded while the officer explained something. They shook the man's hand and closed the door. When they returned to the living room in which Sora was sitting, they found their son asleep on the easy chair, absolutely exhausted.

_July 18, 12:00 A.M._

The gentle sound of the waves was the only thing audible. Kairi and Sora lay on the beach, wrapped in each other's arms. Sora felt Kairi press her head against his chest to see if his heart really was beating. Content that he was truly alive, she straightened her back and looked straight into Sora's eyes. He broke the silence, hoping to ease into his desired topic of conversation.

"I can't tell you how good it is to be here with you, Kairi."

She smiled. "I'm just happy you're alive."

Sora returned the smile and they shared a small kiss. Easing into this question was simply impossible. He steeled himself for the unpleasant reaction he may provoke. "What happened between you and Riku?"

The reaction he anticipated was notably absent. Instead of disbelief and anger, he saw only surprise in Kairi's face. "How… how did you… how did you know?"

"You avoided him like the plague on the ride home. Comberth Harbor, the Gummi Ship, the helicopter… You never once spoke to him. You didn't even look at him. That's not like you. Did he do something to you?"

Sora could see Kairi was trying to hide something. He kissed her gently on the head and ran a hand through her hair, whispering in her ear. "Please. Just tell me."

Kairi burst into tears. She told Sora everything while he listened silently. It seemed like an eternity until Kairi sniffled and looked into Sora's eyes. "I understand if you don't love me anymore."

Sighing, Sora looked at the distraught girl. "It wouldn't be love if this was all it took to break it. I know you'd never do that if you were yourself. I love you, and you love me. Nothing you ever do will convince me otherwise."

The redhead pulled Sora closer and quietly spoke into his ear. "I promise I'll never betray you again. No matter what."

Sora's head had ended up in the sand when Kairi was saying this, so he had to pull away in order to respond. When he did, he shook his head, spraying sand into both of their faces. After some coughing, Sora brought his hand behind her head and looked into her eyes, a mischievous smile on his face. "You keep your promise, and I'll keep mine."

His response didn't make sense to Kairi, so he clarified. "Remember before any of this happened? I said we'd finish up later." He gently brushed his hand against her cheek. "It's later."

Kairi cried tears of happiness as the two lovestruck teens met each other's lips, finally able to be together again.

They fell asleep in each other's arms, the waves lapping at their feet.


End file.
